Hampstead and Marylebone, by G. E. Mitton.

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Title: Hampstead and Marylebone
The Fascination of London
Author: Geraldine Edith Mitton
Editor: Sir Walter Besant
Release Date: August 15, 2009 [EBook #29690]
Language: English
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THE FASCINATION
OF LONDON

HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE

IN THIS SERIES.

Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net, each.

THE STRAND DISTRICT.

By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.

WESTMINSTER.

By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.

HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.

By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.

CHELSEA.

By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.

KENSINGTON.

By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.

HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.

By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.

CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD.

The Fascination of
London

HAMPSTEAD
AND
MARYLEBONE

PREFATORY NOTE

A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should
preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her
mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that
Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the
past—this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he
died.

As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything
else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted
before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I
find something fresh in it every day."

He had seen one at least of his dreams realized in the People's Palace,
but he was not destined to see this mighty work on London take form. He
died when it was still incomplete. His scheme included several volumes
on the history of London as a whole. These he finished up to the end of
the eighteenth century, and they form a record of the great city
practically unique, and exception[Pg viii]ally interesting, compiled by one who
had the qualities both of novelist and historian, and who knew how to
make the dry bones live. The volume on the eighteenth century, which Sir
Walter called a "very big chapter indeed, and particularly interesting,"
will shortly be issued by Messrs. A. and C. Black, who had undertaken
the publication of the Survey.

Sir Walter's idea was that the next two volumes should be a regular and
systematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that the
history of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a very
original feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took the
keenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant its
issue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it is
proposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts and
publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the local
inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest and
the history of London lie in these street associations. For this purpose
Chelsea, Westminster, the Strand, and Hampstead have been selected for
publication first, and have been revised and brought up to date.

The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great,
for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying
charm[Pg ix] of London—that is to say, the continuity of her past history
with the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her
history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the
series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain.
The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who
loved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him,
and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links
between past and present in themselves largely constitute The
Fascination of London.

HAMPSTEAD

The name of this borough is clearly derived from "ham," or "hame," a
home; and "steede," a place, and has consequently the same meaning as
homestead. Park, in a note in his book on Hampstead, says that the "p"
is a modern interpolation, scarcely found before the seventeenth
century, and not in general use until the eighteenth.

HISTORY

Lysons says that the Manor of Hampstead was given in 986 A.D. by King
Ethelred to the church at Westminster, and that this gift was confirmed
by Edward the Confessor; but there is an earlier charter of King Edgar
of uncertain date, probably between 963 and 978. It granted the land at
Hamstede to one Mangoda, and the limits of the grant are thus stated:
"From Sandgate along the road to Foxhanger; from the Hanger west to
Watling Street north along the street to the Cucking Pool; from the
Cucking Pool east to Sandgate."

Professor Hales, who thinks, whether genuine[Pg 2] or not, this charter is
certainly of value, interprets Sandgate as North End, Foxhanger as
Haverstock Hill, Watling Street as Edgeware Road, and the Cucking Pool
he concludes was in the marshy ground at the north-west corner of the
parish.

This earlier charter is only interesting because it carries the history
one point further back; the gift to the monks by King Ethelred was in
its consequences far more important. The Bishop of Westminster, who held
the land after the dissolution of the monastery, surrendered it to the
King in 1550, by whom it was given to Sir Thomas Wroth. It remained in
the Wroth family until 1620, when it was acquired by Sir Baptist Hickes,
afterwards Viscount Campden. Hickes' daughter and coheir married Lord
Noel, ancestor of the Earls of Gainsborough, and it was held by the
Gainsboroughs until 1707. In that year it was bought by Sir William
Langhorne, who left it to his nephew. It then went to a Mrs. Margaret
Maryon, later to Mrs. Weller, and about 1780 to Sir Thomas Spencer
Wilson, in right of his wife. Her son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson,
succeeded her, and in this line it has remained since 1818.

Besides the Manor of Hampstead there is included in the borough the
ancient Manor of Belsize, or Belses. Sir Roger de Brabazon in[Pg 3] 1317 gave
an estate to Westminster Abbey to found a chantry for himself, Edmund,
Earl of Lancaster, and Blanche his wife. After many changes it was
occupied by Lord Wotton, who had been created a Baron by Charles II. His
half-brother, Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, succeeded him, and the
family held the Belsize estate until 1807. The house was afterwards
turned into a popular place of amusement.

Hampstead as a whole has grown very rapidly. In a map of the beginning
of the nineteenth century there are comparatively few houses; these
nestle in the shape of a spear-head and haft about the High Street. At
West End and Fortune Green are a few more, a few straggle up the
southern end of the Kilburn Road, and Rosslyn House and Belsize House
are detached, out in the open country.

Seymour, writing in 1735, gives a quaint description of Hampstead as
follows: "This Village ... is much more frequented by good company than
can well be expected considering its vicinity to London, but such care
has been taken to discourage the meaner sort from making it a place of
residence that it is now become, after Scarborough and Bath and
Tunbridge, one of the Politest Public Places in England, and to add to
the Entertainment of the Company there is, besides the long room in
which the Company meet publicly on a Monday evening[Pg 4] to play at cards,
etc., a new Dancing Room built this year."

Hampstead itself, now a town of 80,000 people, is almost entirely
modern; the old village has been gradually destroyed until there is next
to nothing left. But the Heath remains, the only wild piece of ground
within easy reach of the Londoner. It remains to be seen whether the
authorities will continue to observe the difference between a park and a
heath.

No suburb of London can point to so many distinguished residents as
this, the most favoured and the most favourite. Among them may be
mentioned Sir Henry Vane, Dr. Butler (author of the "Analogy"), Lord
Alvanley, Lord Chatham, Lord Erskine, Crabbe, Dr. Johnson, Joanna
Baillie, Mrs. Barbauld, Constable, Romney, Sir James Mackintosh, Steele,
Gay, Arbuthnot, Akenside, Thomas Day, Leigh Hunt, Keats, William Blake,
John Linnell, Wilkie, Stanfield, Du Maurier, and many others.

Directly you get within the boundaries of Hampstead you are aware that
the borough has an atmosphere of its own—an atmosphere in two senses,
for the great height of part of the borough and its distance from London
combine to give it as wholesome and pure an air as may be found in any
place in England, and an atmosphere in the metaphorical sense—a
peculiar feeling of bright[Pg 5]ness and lightness which proclaims a favoured
suburb. Hampstead has always been celebrated for its trees, and in spite
of the great annual increase in the number of its houses these have not
been wiped out of existence. Nearly every house possesses one or more,
and some are very fine specimens. The long sinuous backbone of the
borough, beginning as Haverstock Hill, continuing as Rosslyn Hill, and
running through High Street and Heath Street to the Heath, is
tree-shaded almost all its length. The streets on either side show
vistas of irregular red brick, softened and toned down by the greenery
of trees; every road is an avenue. The main artery, indicated above, is
all uphill, not all equally steep, but collar-work throughout its
length; at the top it bifurcates, and the winding of Heath Street
reminds one of a Continental town. The steep little streets or alleys
running down into it are furnished with steps like the Edinburgh wynds.
The way is long, but the toil is forgotten at the summit in the splendid
view from the flagstaff. Here the rolling blue outlines of distant hills
are emphasized by the beautiful foreground of the West Heath. There is
none of what painters call the "middle distance"; everything is near or
far, and the near is extraordinarily beautiful, especially if it be seen
in springtime when the spray of blossom is like the spray of deep water
breaking upon rocks, and the[Pg 6] gorse twinkles like the twinkling of
ripples in the golden sunlight. The immediate foreground is bare and
worn, but a little further away the miniature heights and hollows, the
scrubby bush and little winding paths, add that mystery which so greatly
increases delight. The pond by the Flagstaff is frequently very gay;
there are carriages and horses, children with flotillas of white-sailed
craft, and horses splashing knee-deep from end to end of the pond, an
advantage much appreciated in the hot and thirsty summer. Away to the
east stretches of rolling green form a joyous playground for all at
holiday times, but are bare and arid compared with the West Heath.

Below North End on West Heath this character is maintained, and there
are few sights in England more beautiful than the richly clothed broken
ground stretching away from the slopes below Jack Straw's Castle when
the sunlight catches the leaves of the poplars and beeches, making them
shine with shimmery silver light. On all sides are magnificent views of
distant horizons.

The Heath forms one of the greatest attractions of Hampstead, and that
the inhabitants are fully alive to its beauty and importance is shown by
their gallant and successful efforts to preserve it intact, when, from
time to time, it has been threatened. Neither the proposed curtailments
by the Lord of the Manor nor the park-like[Pg 7] "improvements" of the London
County Council have been permitted. It is still a wide space of
undulating ground, outlined by masses of foliage rising to the heights
of Highgate, and is an untold boon to the dwellers in the City, who
throng its slopes on Bank Holidays. In 1866 a contest arose between the
Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, and the inhabitants of
Hampstead as to the preservation of the Heath. Up to that date for
twenty years a guerilla warfare had been going on in dispute of Sir
Maryon Wilson's right to build upon the Heath, and when he began to
build a house close to the Flagstaff pond the matter came to an issue. A
subscription list was opened called the Hampstead Heath Protection Fund,
and the matter was taken into court. Before the case was ended Sir
Thomas died, and was succeeded by his brother Sir John, who was open to
a compromise. Under an Act of Parliament the Metropolitan Board of Works
acquired the Heath for £55,045. The ground thus acquired comprised 220
acres. In 1889-90 Parliament Hill Fields and the Brickfields were
purchased for £302,000, with money partly raised by the local Vestries,
partly by public subscription, and partly by Metropolitan taxation. The
land thus bought from Lord Mansfield and Sir Spencer Wilson comprised
261 acres, and was dedicated to the public as an open space for ever.[Pg 8]

The part of the Heath known as East Heath consists of rolling grassy
slopes outlined with clumps of trees and intersected by roads and
footpaths. The great road known as Spaniards, which cuts across as
straight as an arrow, gives the impression of having been banked up and
levelled at some previous date, but this appearance is due to the
excavations for sand and gravel at its sides which took place while the
ground was still under the rule of the lord of the manor.

The Heath has suffered from highwaymen in common with most lonely spots
in the vicinity of the Metropolis. One, Jackson, in 1673, was hung
behind Jack Straw's Castle for highway murder, but no other very
notorious crimes are attached to this spot as there are to Hounslow or
Blackheath.

The Heath is not altogether destitute of houses; of those detached,
several have had the origin of what Baines terms "Squatters' right," and
have established their title by process of time. There are also several
hamlets: the Vale of Health, the houses about Jack Straw's Castle, North
End, and the group near the Spaniards.

The curious little cluster of buildings called the Vale of Health,
situated in a basin near to one of the Hampstead ponds, has always
attracted considerable attention. Here Leigh Hunt came to live in 1816;
his house was on the site of the Vale[Pg 9] of Health Hotel. Thornbury quotes
an old inhabitant, who writes of Leigh Hunt's cottage as having a
"pretty balcony environed with creepers, and a tall arbor vitæ which
almost overtops the roof." There are very few even tolerably old houses
left here; the little streets are of the modern villa order, and the
great square tavern, with its tea-gardens and merry-go-rounds, its
shooting-galleries and penny-in-the-slot machines, has vulgarized the
place. Prince Esterhazy is said to have taken a house in the Vale of
Health in 1840; this has been "long since pulled down." The place is now
dedicated to the sweeping tide of merry-makers which flows over it every
recurring Bank Holiday.

The charming spot called North End still remains rural in appearance:
small cottages with red-tiled roofs and quaint inns survive side by side
with the modern red-brick school-house. The Bull and Bush is said to
have been the country seat of Hogarth, and later, when it became a
tavern, to have been visited by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, Sterne,
Foote, and other celebrities. The house is very picturesque: the
projecting wing northward is of rusticated woodwork; the leads of the
bayed-windows are covered with flowers in summer. There are still the
old-fashioned tea-gardens attached.

There are many substantial and comfortable[Pg 10] residences about North End,
but the Hampstead boundary does not include them all. Wildwoods, or, as
it used to be called, North End House, is the most important within the
boundary. The original fabric of the house is two centuries old, but has
been altered and repaired largely. The spot is named Wildwood Corner in
Domesday Book. Its chief historical interest lies in its occupation by
William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, who shut himself up here from all
communication with his fellow-Ministers in 1767; he was then a miserable
invalid, afflicted with a disorder which in modern times would have been
termed "nerves"; he refused to see anyone, even his own attendant, and
his food was passed to him through a panel of the door. However, he
afterwards returned to public life. In Wildwood Terrace are the Home of
Rest for the Aged Poor, and a Convalescent Cottage Home. Wilkie Collins
was born at North End. Besides this, the names of Linnell, portrait and
landscape painter, Coventry Patmore, Mrs. Craik, Eliza Meteyard, a minor
author, and Sir Fowell Buxton, are more or less intimately associated
with the little hamlet.

A charming path leads over the broken ground from North End to the
Spaniards. The most noticeable object as the pedestrian approaches the
latter is a grove of fine Scotch firs, which at one time formed an
avenue to a substantial, unpre[Pg 11]tentious house on the north. A Mr.
Turner, a tobacconist of Fleet Street, built the house and planted the
trees in 1734. The road past the house turns to the left or north, and
is bounded on the east side by the wall of the Caenwood property.

Following the road we come upon Erskine House, a stuccoed house with
covered porch, chiefly remarkable for the immense size of its upper
windows, which are out of all proportion to those of the ground-floor.
These command a magnificent prospect, and light a room which, it is
said, was designed as a banqueting-hall in which to entertain George
III. The house was the residence of the great law lord, Thomas Erskine,
and on that account alone is worthy of special mention. A tunnel
connecting it with Lord Mansfield's grounds formerly ran under the road.

Below the house, standing at an angle to the Highgate Road, and looking
down the hill, is the famous old inn called the Spaniards. Here, at
least, the modern builder has not been at work. From the quaint tiled
roof to the irregular windows and white-washed brick walls, all is
simple and charming. A little lean-to shed of rusticated woodwork forms
a bar at the back. This tavern is actually outside the boundary of
Hampstead, but it is so closely connected with the parish that it cannot
be overlooked. It is on[Pg 12] the site of a lodge at the entrance to the park
or grounds of the Bishop of London.

From Wroth we learn that about the middle of the eighteenth century or
earlier one Staples laid out a curious pleasure-garden here, with quaint
designs, which attracted much attention. It was the landlord of the
Spaniards Inn who in the time of the Gordon Riots dexterously detained
the rioters from proceeding to Caenwood House until the troops arrived
to protect it. The tea-gardens at the back still survive; in these was
the old bowling-green. Close by was another pleasure-garden, New
Georgia, but this is quite beyond the parish limits.

Returning across the Heath, we come to Jack Straw's Castle, though there
is no evidence to show that the riotous ringleader of 1381 had ever any
connection with the hostelry named after him, but it is quite possible
that the Heath formed a rendezvous for the malcontents of his time. In
early times an earthwork stood on the site, which gave rise to the name
"castle." The real Jack Straw's Castle was at Highgate. It is almost
certain that the Hampstead hostelry was originally a private house; the
wood of the gallows on which one Jackson had been hanged behind the
house, in 1673, for highway murder, was built into the wall. When the
place became an inn it was called Castle Inn, and the first mention of
Jack Straw's[Pg 13] Castle is in a book published in 1822 called "The Cabinet
of Curiosities." The present inn was built in the early part of the
eighteenth century, and is a nice-looking stuccoed old house; through
the entry to the yard we get a glimpse of red-tiled, rusticated wooden
outbuildings. On one side are the tea-gardens. Dickens often resorted
here, as is mentioned in Forster's "Life of Dickens," and the inn is
referred to also by Washington Irving in "The Sketch-Book."

There was a race-course behind the hotel on the Heath, but the races
have been suppressed. In a paper contributed to Baines' book on
Hampstead a correspondent says: "The Castle Hotel is associated with the
meetings of the Courts Leet, and in the old days during the Middlesex
Parliamentary elections the house was a famous rendezvous for candidates
and voters." A brick house two centuries old at the corner of Spaniards
Road is Heath House. It was long occupied by the Hoare family, of
banking fame, whose name has been intimately associated with Hampstead.
Visitors of distinction have often been received here, and the names of
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Crabbe were among those of frequent guests.

The Flagstaff marks a very high point on the Heath, 439 feet, which is,
however, surpassed by Jack Straw's Castle at 443 feet.

The Whitestone Pond has been enlarged, and is[Pg 14] supplied by New River
water. From this site a view of surprising beauty is seen—broken ground
covered by bracken and gorse, bushes and trees, with the blue outlines
of the distant hills.

South of the Whitestone Pond is the Hampstead water reservoir, and near
it beds of flowers, rhododendron bushes, etc., are neatly laid out.
Almost immediately opposite is a quiet, dark-coloured little brick
house, with area steps descending in front and the entrance on the
north. This (now a private residence) was once the Upper Flask Tavern,
familiar to all the readers of Richardson, for here he makes the unhappy
Clarissa Harlowe fly in his famous novel. The Kit Kat Club used to meet
here during the summer months, and many celebrities of Queen Anne's
reign, including Pope and Steele, are known to have patronized the
tavern. George Steevens, the commentator on Shakespeare, who died in the
beginning of the present century, lived here, and spent much money on
alterations and improvements. Anything less suggestive of a tavern than
this cool, shady, retired spot cannot well be imagined. A very large
red-brick house, modern, with fancy tiles, stands in its own grounds
adjacent, overlooking Holford Road. But it is quite impossible to
enumerate all the charming residences scattered about in this locality.

East Heath Road skirts the edge of the Heath.[Pg 15] In itself it contains
nothing remarkable, but closely adjoining are one or two of those
charming old red-brick mansions which make Hampstead what it is.
Heathfield House, Squires Mount, and The Pryors are specimens of these.

On the south side is Cannon Hall, an old Queen Anne mansion. Old cannon,
which have doubtless some connection with the name, stand in the roadway
before it, and close by is Christ Church Vicarage, of the same type,
with red-tiled roof.

Christ Church Road is a long tree-shaded thoroughfare descending the
slope of the hill; it was formerly called Green Man Lane, from the
public-house of that name at the foot.

The church stands at a great elevation, and has a high spire, which
forms a landmark far and wide. It was built by Sir Gilbert Scott,
consecrated in 1852, and was the successor of the chapel in Well Walk,
an account of which is given on p. 18. The church was enlarged in 1882.
The streets hereabouts are set at all angles, and the result to a
stranger is a little perplexing.

Hampstead Square is a square only in name; one or two delightful old
brick houses are dotted about, but are chiefly detached, and can hardly
be said to form a square. At New End is the workhouse originally built
in 1845, but extended in 1870 and 1883. It is a solid and commodious
building. Of the remainder of that part of Hampstead[Pg 16] known as New End,
it is almost impossible to give any detailed account. It is a curious
medley of steeply tilted narrow streets, little passages, small cottages
set down at any angle, with vine or Virginia creeper growing over them,
and here and there a hideous row of little modern brick houses. The
White Bear at New End is the oldest public-house in the parish, bearing
date 1704. Willow Road lays claim to its name by the fringe of willows
that lines its northern side.

The Flask Tavern in Flask Walk is on the site of one of the oldest
beerhouses in Hampstead; the present structure is a hideous brick
building of modern date. The Walk is reached from High Street under a
covered entry, and the street is at first only wide enough for the
passage of one vehicle. Being on the side of the hill it shows, further
on, a picturesque irregularity with the footway at a different level
from the road. Small rows of limes add a certain quaintness to its
aspect, and it is easy to imagine the four days' fair, beginning on
August 1, which used to be held here annually. The watch-house and
public stocks stood at the upper end of this street when removed from
Heath Street.

It is easy to imagine that the name Flask originated in the shape of the
road, with its narrow neck and expanded end, but perhaps the[Pg 17] Walk took
its name from the public-house, in which case the suggested derivation
would fail.

Well Walk is the most celebrated spot in Hampstead, for here flow the
famous chalybeate waters, which rivalled those of Bath and Tunbridge
Wells, and in their best days drew an amazing army of gay people to the
spot. The earliest mention of the spring is in the time of Charles II.,
when a halfpenny token with the words "Dorothy Rippin at the well in
Hampsted" on the obverse was issued. In 1698 Susanna Noel with her son
Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, gave the well, encompassed by six
acres of ground, to the poor of Hampstead. It was in the beginning of
the eighteenth century that the waters first became famous. Howitt says
they were carried fresh every day for sale to Holborn Bars, Charing
Cross, and other central spots; but their palmy days did not last very
long, for in 1734 there was an attempt to revive interest in them by a
laudatory pamphlet. However, while they were at the height of their
popularity many persons whose names are well known were attracted by
them. It was at the Long Room, Hampstead, that Fanny Burney (afterwards
Madame D'Arblay) came to stay, and here she made her heroine Evelina
attend balls. Her book gained her such a circle of admirers that it is
said her second work was expected as eagerly as a novel from Scott.[Pg 18]

The chief building was the Pump Room, on the south side of the street,
near where the entrance to Gainsborough Gardens now is. The first
recorded entertainment here was on August 18, 1701, when a concert was
given. Concerts and entertainments of various kinds were kept up during
the season. There was a bowling-green near. This house dated from about
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1733 it was converted into
an episcopal chapel, and was so used until 1849. There was another
chapel called Sion Chapel in the vicinity, though its exact situation is
unknown; here couples could be married for five shillings, provided they
brought with them a license. The license was not always insisted on. The
Pump Room was later used as a guard-room of the West Middlesex
Volunteers, and was pulled down in 1880 to make way for the road above
mentioned. It was then discovered by the intervening wall that the
adjacent house was of still older date, and it is thus proved to be one
of the oldest remaining in Hampstead. It has a graceful spindle porch
and delightful old-world air, though the side adjoining Gainsborough
Gardens has been refaced.

Just opposite is a solid drinking fountain of polished granite, with
inscription to the effect that it is in memory of Susanna Noel's gift,
and here the chalybeate waters may still be tasted. One or[Pg 19] two old
houses are on the northern side of the Walk, and one of these, a long,
low, red-brick edifice called Weatherhall House, deserves special
notice. It contained the Long Room where dances and assemblies were
held, and even after the fame of the waters declined it still held its
place. Perhaps this is the room referred to by Seymour as having been
built in 1735. He describes it as "60 feet long and 30 feet wide, well
adorned with chandeliers. The manner of being admitted into it is by a
ticket, of which every gentleman who subscribes a guinea for the season
has one for himself and two more for two ladies; all those who have not
subscribers' tickets pay 2s. 6d. each at the entrance every night. And
Sunday nights in the same room is an assembly where the gentlemen and
ladies who lodge in the town are entertained with tea and coffee at
sixpence per head, but no other amusements are allowed on these nights."

Here Mrs. Johnson came, and Mark Akenside, poet and physician of the
eighteenth century; Dr. Arbuthnot, friend of Swift, a man ranked high
among the wits of his day, and holding the appointment of physician to
Queen Anne; Fanny Burney, and many others. The house is now a private
residence. Standing further back from the road behind a quadrangle is
Burgh House, also old. This was at one time used as a militia[Pg 20] barracks,
at which time (1863) the two solid wings adjoining the road were
erected.

Burgh House is now a private residence, and the cells where
insubordinate soldiers were confined are converted into the drying and
mangling rooms of a laundry.

The Wells Tavern is on the site of the Green Man, of ancient date. In
1879 the Vestry proposed to sweep away the groves of the Well Walk and
make it into a modern thoroughfare, a New Wells Street, which drew forth
indignant protest from the parishioners and a pamphlet from Sir Gilbert
Scott.

The renovations, accordingly, were confined to the opening of one or two
new streets on the south side, and the erection of the fountain. But
even this involved the destruction of part of the old Pump Room. On the
site of the Pump Room is a new red-brick house called Wellside, built in
1892, which has an inscription to that effect. Besides the Pump Room,
Well Walk has many associations. The famous painter Constable lived in a
house which was then numbered 6. He took this house as an extra one in
1826, though still retaining the studio and a few rooms in his London
house, near Fitzroy Square; he was then fifty, and was just beginning to
feel the small measure of success which was all that was granted him in
his lifetime. John Keats and his brothers[Pg 21] lodged in Well Walk, next to
the Wells Tavern, in 1817-18; and the seat on which Keats loved to sit
under a grove of trees at the most easterly end is still called by his
name. Here Hone found him "sobbing his dying breath into a
handkerchief."

East Heath and South End Roads are traversed annually by millions of
people, for they lead from the station and the tramway terminus to the
Heath, passing some nicely laid-out ground suggestive of a
watering-place, and a curious octagonal tower connected with the water
companies.

To the north-east are the Hampstead ponds, which are supposed to have
been made in Henry VIII.'s reign. They are certainly larger now than
they were in the seventeenth century, and have probably been enlarged
artificially. They are now in possession of the New River Waterworks
Company. The streets on the hill beyond the ponds are all modern.

Gayton Road is composed entirely of modern villas in a continuous
straight line. Many of the streets in the vicinity are in the same
style, and were built over open meadows at a comparatively recent date.
On Downshire Hill is an episcopal chapel with white porch and small
cupola; this is dedicated to St. John.

John Street, like Downshire Hill, has detached[Pg 22] residences on either
side. Large brick flats are rising on the ground once covered by Lawn
Bank and Wentworth House. In the former Keats was a welcome visitor from
1818 to 1820, and here he wrote many of his famous poems. Fanny Brawne,
with her mother, occupied the adjacent house.

Rosslyn Hill was formerly called Red Lion Hill, from a public-house
which stood on the site of the present police-station. On the north side
are a Unitarian chapel and schools approached by handsome iron gates.
The chapel is approached from Pilgrim Lane and Kemplay Road, and the
schools from Willoughby Road. There stood near by until within the last
twenty years an old building known as the Chicken House. This is
supposed to have been once a hunting lodge of King James I., though
there is little basis for the tradition. It became later a mean hovel,
the rendezvous for the scum and riffraff of the neighbourhood. It stood
a little back from the road just at the spot where Pilgrim Place now is,
and contained some very curious stained glass in its windows. There was
in one section a portrait of King James I., with an inscription on a
tablet below in French to the effect that the King slept here on August
25, 1619. In another section was a corresponding portrait of the
favourite, Buckingham. Further north there existed another old[Pg 23] house
known as Carlisle House. Perhaps this is the one mentioned by Park as a
red-brick Elizabethan house with rubbed quoins, which had been let in
tenements, and was in a ruinous state in 1777.

On the south or western side of Rosslyn Hill there is the police-station
before mentioned, and adjacent an interesting Tudor house, which, though
not old, is well built; this contains the Soldiers' Daughters' Home. Old
Vane House previously stood here, and was the residence of Sir Harry
Vane of the Commonwealth, and later of Bishop Butler, who wrote the
"Analogy." The Home is on the site of the south wing of this building,
and includes no part of it. Belmont House, now a private residence, was
the northern wing. Baines speaks of a date, 1789, and the initials
I.R.W. scored on the leads of the latter, but this gives no clue to the
age of the building. He says: "The antiquity of the house is abundantly
shown by the arrangement of the basements, by the thickness of the main
walls, and by a curious subterranean passage from the brewhouse to the
stable-yard."

The institution of the Soldiers' Daughters' Home was the outcome of the
patriotic feeling aroused by the Crimean War. The house was built for
the reception of the girls, who entered into possession in 1867. The
Tudor feeling has been well carried out, from the deep porch which
overlooks[Pg 24] the ivy-surrounded courtyard in front to the stone staircases
within. The result is delightful; instead of the hideous dreariness of
an institution, we have a real home. At the back a large extent of grass
playground stretches out westward, and at the end of this there is a
grove of trees. On one side of the grass is a large playroom built in
1880 by means of an opportune legacy, and on the other a covered
cloister which leads to the school, standing detached from the house at
the other end of the playground. An old pier burdened with a mass of ivy
stands up in the centre, the only remnant of this part of old Vane
House. Some years ago a portion of the ground was profitably sold for
the frontage to Fitz John's Avenue.

The girls are received between the ages of six and eleven years, and
remain until sixteen. They are trained in every requisite for domestic
service, and make all their own clothes except hats and boots. As a
badge of the army, they are always dressed in scarlet.

High Street has been greatly changed within recent years, and it is
within the memory of living persons that there were trees on each side.
The opening of the two new roads, Prince Arthur Road and Gayton Road,
affected its appearance. At the corner of Prince Arthur Road is a large
Wesleyan chapel in many coloured bricks. Opposite is the[Pg 25] King of
Bohemia, a public-house which dates back to Jacobean times, and contains
some good Jacobean woodwork; also Stanfield House, once the residence of
Clarkson Stanfield the artist, now used as a subscription library. The
Free Library reading-room is under the same roof. The house is of brick
with ivy climbing over it. About the end of old Church Lane cluster a
few old red-brick houses, which preserve a certain flavour of
picturesqueness in the street. Opposite the Wesleyan chapel a few more
peep over more modern additions. The north-east side is almost entirely
modern. The Bird in Hand public-house, where the London omnibuses
complete their journey, inherits the name and site of an old tavern. A
Presbyterian church at the corner of Willoughby Road dates from 1862,
but replaces a much older one removed 1736. In the earlier one Mr.
Barbauld, chiefly known on account of his famous wife, ministered for
many years. After his death Mrs. Barbauld continued to live at Rosslyn
Hill.

Heath Street cuts diagonally across the top of High Street. Below the
junction it is all modern, immense red-brick buildings of similar type,
with large shops on the ground-floors. At the junction is an imposing
fire-station, built by Vulliamy in 1874 on the site of the old
police-station. The street higher up is narrow and irregular, with a
row[Pg 26] of elms above the level of the roadway on the west side. A
conspicuous Baptist chapel in white stone with two western spires was
built in 1862, but the origin of the congregation here dates from the
preaching of Whitfield on the Heath in 1739. The watch-house and stocks
were formerly situated at the foot of Heath Street, and later removed to
Flask Walk. About Golden Square there are many little irregular entwined
streets and passages, with here and there a cottage, here and there the
flat sashed windows of a house of a bygone generation, all intricate,
entangled, but very quaint and charming.

The Grove is a long shady avenue, with one or two fine old houses on
either side of the road and a few cottages. At the top is a big boys'
school. On the east in one building are Old and New Grove Houses, and
opposite is Fenton House, which was long known as the Clock House. New
Grove House was the residence of Du Maurier. At the north end is the
Hampstead Waterworks reservoir.

A tree-shaded eminence, crowned with pleasant seats and commanding a
magnificent view of the Heath, leads to Branch Hill. This, marked in
Park's map Prospect Walk, is now called the Judge's Walk. This name is
derived from a tradition that the judges came here and held their courts
under canvas while the plague was[Pg 27] raging in 1665. But derivations of
this sort are very easy to make up and entirely unreliable.

Lower and Upper Terraces just behind are full of charming residences. In
the former Constable lived at intervals (No. 2) during 1821, and to the
latter Mrs. Siddons came in the autumn of 1804. In Montague House Sir G.
Scott lived.

Branch Hill runs down into Frognal Rise, and on the west there are one
or two big houses scattered about.

Branch Hill Lodge belonged to Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls in
1745, who presented it to Lord Chancellor Macclesfield. It was for a
period the residence of the Earl of Rosslyn, and tradition connects Lord
Byron's name with it. It stands in beautiful and extensive grounds.
Further along Branch Hill Road there are many new terraces and one or
two big houses.

Hollybush Hill is in a straight line with High Street, and between it
and Heath Street there are curious little steep passages and alleys,
which resemble those found in some Continental towns. Hollybush Hill is
associated with the name of Romney the artist, who lived here and built
a studio in 1796. He was then sixty-two, the zenith of his career was
past, he suffered from ill-health and was morbid and irritable. The
studio was converted into Assembly Rooms after his death, and is now[Pg 28]
incorporated into the Constitutional Club building which adjoins. This
club is social and Conservative. The exterior is of rusticated woodwork,
and a flagstaff stands before it. In the curious little side-street
known as Holly Mount is the front of the Hollybush Tavern, a stuccoed
building with a somewhat fantastic wooden porch or veranda. Three houses
in a row face the open space at the top of Hollybush Hill. The most
easterly possesses a charming old ironwork gate supported by old brick
piers and the inevitable stone balls. This is protected by an outer
modern gate. All three houses stand back behind gardens, so that only
glimpses of them can be seen from the road.

In Bolton House, the most westerly of the three, Joanna Baillie,
dramatic writer, and her sister Agnes lived. Mr. Shaw, writing in the
"Dictionary of National Biography," says: "Geniality and hospitality
were the characteristics of the two sisters during their residence at
Hampstead, and even when one became an octogenarian and the other a
nonagenarian they could enter keenly into the various literary and
scientific controversies of the day." This is next door to the house
known as Windmill Hill, which is also the name given to the locality.
Opposite is Mount Vernon, where the Hospital for Consumption stands, a
pleasant red-brick building which contains accommodation for eighty
in-patients; the out-patient[Pg 29] department is in Fitzroy Square. A new
wing was opened by Princess Christian in 1893. On the sloping ground
near the old workhouse used to stand; before it was a workhouse, Colley
Cibber used to meet Booth and Wilkes to arrange his dramatic campaigns
in this building.

Behind the hospital is a Roman Catholic chapel, in which Mary Anderson
was married. This was built in 1816, and the founder was the Abbé Morel.
The front is stuccoed, and in a niche there is a group of Virgin and
Child. Close by a stone slab bears the name "Holly Place, 1816."

St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Orphanage occupies No.'s 1, 2, 3, Holly
Place. To the west are big National schools and playgrounds, and a
curving hill called Hollybush Vale runs into the modern part of Heath
Street. On the west of Heath Street are Oriel Place and Church Lane. At
the corner of the latter is the Sailors' Orphan Girls' Home. This is a
big formal building, with none of the architectural beauty which marks
the sister establishment on Rosslyn Hill. The institution, however,
claims an older date, having been founded in 1829. The present building
was opened in 1869 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The girls are kept from six
to sixteen years of age and trained for domestic service. Their uniform
is the naval colour, dark blue. This road, running[Pg 30] past the building
formerly called Greenhill, is now merged into Fitz John's Avenue.

Church Row is almost entirely old, one of the most lovable and quiet
parts of the parish—houses of brick with flat-sashed windows,
projecting porches with carved brackets, here and there red tiles, here
and there a bower of jasmine and ivy. One house covered with rusticated
woodwork projects above the ground-floor in a bay carried up to the
roof.

Dr. Sherlock, Dean of St. Paul's, and a great theological and
controversial writer in the reigns of William III. and Anne, and Dr.
Arbuthnot were former residents in the Row, and the great Dr. Johnson
stayed at Frognal Park in the vicinity. Mrs. Barbauld (see p. 25) and
Miss Aikin are also to be numbered among the residents. There is an
industrial school for girls, and at the western end of the Row the
parish church (St. John the Evangelist) rears its tower beyond a line of
small lime-trees. The place has, however, recently been disfigured by
high mansions.

The parish of Hampstead was originally included in that of Hendon. The
churchwardens of Hampstead first appeared at the Bishop's visitation in
1598, which therefore marks the beginning of an actual parochial
settlement, though the register commences in 1560, nearly forty years
earlier. Until 1561 it was considered[Pg 31] as a donative or free chapel, and
after that date it became a perpetual curacy, subject to the
jurisdiction of the Bishop and the Archdeacon.

The first church or chapel, which stood on the same site as the present
one, must have been a curious little structure, if one may judge from
the illustrations still extant—a low-pitched Gothic building with
wooden belfry. This was dedicated to St. Mary, and the date of its
origin is unknown. In 1745 it was taken down, and services were held in
the chapel in Well Walk for two years, while the new church was being
built. The building itself is of a kind of dingy earth-brick, which, in
spite of the conspicuous date, 1745, at the east end, looks as fresh and
sharp-edged as if it were of yesterday. The body of the church is
mercifully clothed in ivy, but the square tower, with its abnormal
battlements and stone courses and facings, rises up nakedly. The
peculiarity of the church is that the tower is at the east end. The
conical copper spire was added in 1784. An old clock-dial of stone faces
eastward.

To raise funds for the building of the church a plan was formed by which
those who gave £50 were to have first choice of seats, and to have the
additional privilege of handing on such seats to their heirs. This
arrangement continued until 1827. Besides many minor alterations and
improvements, a thorough rearrangement of the[Pg 32] interior took place in
1878. Then a chancel was added at the west end, and thus we have beneath
it the open-arched vaults which form its support. The old pews were done
away with, and the interior redecorated. The reredos is of mosaic work.
The font is of Siena marble "with moulded bases and carved Ionic
capitals of white statuary." The general scheme of decoration is of a
free Renaissance colour. The restoration cost £14,000. The ceiling is
very elaborately decorated, and in a side chapel is a large fresco
painting. The choir is ornamented by beautiful inlaid wood, in the same
style as the font cover. There is an excellent bust of Keats, presented
by American admirers in 1894.

The churchyard is a peculiarly peaceful spot, surrounded by trees,
beeches, acacia, and evergreens. There are no abnormal monstrosities
such as are found among the tombstones of our big cemeteries, but plain
altar-tombs, crosses, and upright slabs of stone. The main entrance is
by flagged walks between neatly-trimmed hedges, and from this foreground
even the church looks almost picturesque.

The tomb of John Constable the artist, his wife, and some of his
children, is in a shaded corner in the south-east. Joanna Baillie is
buried here, and Lucy Aikin, also Lord Erskine, and many minor artists.
The churchyard was enlarged in 1738, and in 1811 an additional ground
was[Pg 33] formed on the north side of the road. Here, though it is very
peaceful, there is not the same charm as there is about the older
ground. Mrs. Rundle Charles, author of "The Chronicles of the Schonberg
Cotta Family," rests here, with a plain Iona marble cross bearing date
1896, as her memorial.

The more important of the parish charities are:

The Wells and Campden Charity, originating in the Gainsborough bequest
of the well and six acres of land in Well Walk. In 1642 Lady Campden
bequeathed £200 to trustees to purchase land for the poor of the parish,
and to this other legacies were added. Freehold land was purchased at
Child's Hill, and in 1855 the distribution of the money was reorganized.

The oldest parish benefactor was Thomas Charles, who in 1617 left money
to buy bread for the poor of the parish. The bread is still bought and
distributed. Various other bequests of small amounts were made from time
to time. About 1723 the then Bishop of London, John Robinson, left £169
odd for the poor.

The succeeding bequests were below this in value until 1771, when
William Pierce, a surgeon, left the interest on £1,700 in 3 per cents.
to endow a Friday evening lecture, to pay the parish clerk and others
for attendance, and to buy Bibles and[Pg 34] Prayer-Books. John Stock's
Charity produces nearly £80 per annum for the clothing and education of
poor children. The next in importance was Thomas Rumsey's gift of £900,
the interest on which was to buy coals for the poor. The other bequests
are too numerous and too small in amount to mention.

The origin of the name of Frognal is not known, though the locality is
of some importance, as it contained the old manor-house where the Courts
Leet were held. The demesne lands at Frognal occupied from four to five
hundred acres of the best land stretching from Child's Hill to Belsize.
The old manor-house, which stood at the north-east corner of West End
Lane, was a long, low farmhouse building which contained a big hall. Mr.
Pool, a lessee, pulled it down and built a brick house on the site, and,
later, built a small house on the south side of the lane, where he went
to live himself. The Courts followed him, and were held there. There are
now on the site of the ancient manor-house two buildings side by side;
the one to which the ancient title has descended appears the more
modern. The Ferns next door looks older, in spite of Howitt's assertion
that the manor-house built by Mr. Pool is the same now bearing the name,
and The Ferns occupies the site of the former manor-house. There are
numerous substantial and comfortable[Pg 35] houses in the vicinity. Frognal
Hall, near the west end of the church, was the residence of Isaac Ware,
architect, and here Lord Alvanley died.

To the north-west are a row of new buildings, forming a crescent on the
hill called Oakhill Park, and to one of these Miss Florence Nightingale
is a frequent visitor during the summer months. At the top of Frognal
Gardens the Editor of this survey lived. Returning again to West End
Lane, we find the hand of the modern builder everywhere apparent. Until
recently a mock antique erection in the Gothic style known as Frognal
Priory formed a feature in the landscape; this has quite disappeared. It
was built by a dealer in curios known as "Memory" Thompson about the end
of the eighteenth century, and was full of curiosities. The owner was
pleased to have visitors to inspect his property, and it is said that
one of his freaks was to leave five-shilling pieces lying about for them
to pick up. Lower down the Frognal Road all is modern, and we come into
the part formerly known as Shepherd's or Conduit Fields. There was a
spring here which used to be the principal source of the Hampstead
water-supply. The water was carried in pails by persons who thus earned
a livelihood. An old woodcut of this well is still extant; it is
represented as a spring with an arch over it. The building of
Fitz-John's Avenue, cutting right[Pg 36] through the fields, quite destroyed
their character, and they are now more or less covered with streets.

Rosslyn House, which stood between Wedderburn and Lyndhurst Roads,
deserves a word of mention as one of the latest of the famous old
Hampstead houses to be destroyed. It was originally called Shelford
House, but changed its name when it became the property of Alexander
Wedderburn, first Earl of Rosslyn, Lord High Chancellor of Great
Britain, 1793. It was noted for its magnificent avenue of Spanish
chestnuts said to have been planted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabethan relics have been found in the vicinity. The grounds are now
cut up and let for building purposes. Woodlands, another fine large
house, is also shorn of its glory, roads having been driven through its
leafy gardens.

West End Ward embraces that portion of Hampstead which is limited by the
Hampstead junction railway on the south and the Finchley Road on the
east.

West End still preserves the character of a little hamlet, though
surrounded on all sides by new streets. The name arose from its being
the western terminus of the demesne lands. The small triangular bit of
green at the junction of Fortune Green and Mill Lanes preserves its
rural aspect, with two little tumbledown, creeper-covered[Pg 37] cottages
overlooking it, though it will probably before long suffer from the
plague of red brick. To the south there is a line of buildings and
shops, with a few—a very few—of older date wedged in between the new
ones. West End Hall, a square red-brick house of respectable antiquity,
stands back behind a rather dilapidated wooden palisade, but a row of
magnificent elms lines the street before it. Beyond it are one or two
other houses in their own grounds. Here a fair was formerly held
annually on July 26 and two following days.

Mill Lane was formerly Shoot-up-Hill Lane, a name now absorbed by a
portion of the northern road into which it runs on the west. The present
name is derived from a mill which stood in the Edgware Road, and was
burnt in 1861, owing to the friction caused by the high velocity of the
sails in a gale of wind. A building called Kilburn Mill still marks the
western end of the lane, though it is in a dilapidated condition, with
the windows broken. Mill Lane was widened by the Vestry, and now runs
between rows of small houses, all of modern date. At the top of Aldred
Road is a big brick building, the Field Lane Boys' Industrial School. At
the corner of the same road stood an unpretentious little church, built
in 1871; it has been pulled down in the last few years. A little further
eastward in Mill Lane is a national school looking[Pg 38] rather like a
chapel, and then we come to the Green again.

There is little in Fortune Green Lane that calls for comment. On the
west side it is completely lined with small new houses. The Green at the
top still remains open for the geese to hiss and cackle over at their
will. The Hampstead cemetery lies on the north. This consists of about
20 acres of land, and two-thirds of it was consecrated by the Bishop of
London in 1876, the remainder being left unconsecrated. A smooth drive
runs down between close-shaven turf, and is lined by rows of singularly
uniform monuments, of which two-thirds are in the form of marble
crosses. The chapel, with its two wings for Church of England and
Nonconformists, connected by a pointed spire and tower, stands across
the central drive as an archway. There is a different kind of
fascination in this well-kept, quiet spot from that derived from the
irregularity of sloping Highgate or the monstrous tombs and overpowering
vaults at Kensal Town. There are many persons buried here whose names
are known to those of their own country and time, but none of any
world-wide note. Maas the singer is perhaps the most important among
them. We have now commented on the principal parts of the ward, except
the great eastern and western roads by which it is bounded.

Finchley Road bounds the borough on the west.[Pg 39] Beginning at Swiss
Cottage, we recall the fact that Hood died in a house near the present
railway-station which is now pulled down. The first building that
strikes the eye is New College, for Nonconformists, a big stone edifice
standing on a green lawn behind a row of small trees. On the opposite
side, further northward, building operations are taking place on a large
scale. On the west side again is Trinity Church, date 1872, a small
church of ragstone with red-tiled roof. We travel much further on before
arriving at any other feature of interest, passing Finchley Road Station
and the shops gathered in the vicinity, also the Hampstead Public
Library, a big building at the corner of Arkwright Road. Hampstead was
comparatively slow in adopting the Public Library Act. The site for its
library was acquired from Sir Maryon Wilson, and the stone was laid by
Sir Henry Harben, who had given £5,000 for the erection of the building.
Five branch libraries are established in connection, and the main one is
chiefly for reference. This was opened in 1897. Further on, we pass on
the east numerous rows of red-brick houses, and on the west the fields
and meadow-lands still open.

Then we come to a huge red brick building with terra-cotta facings; this
was founded in 1866, and is intended both as a college and seminary. It
belongs to the Congregationalists, and their[Pg 40] chapel attached is of the
same materials, and was founded in 1894. Another well-known institution
is Westfield College for ladies, which stands in Kidderpore Avenue on
the rising ground to the west of Finchley Road. The front of the house,
in which the entrance is, is an old building called Kidderpore Hall, and
to this the large modern wing inhabited by the students was added in
1890. The work is for the London Degrees in Arts and Sciences. There are
forty-five students, and each one has two rooms, a larger allowance than
is made at Girton. Through the fields, beyond the cemetery, a winding
footpath takes us over the railway into the Edgware Road.

The part of the road which goes by the name of Shuttup Hill or
Shoot-up-Hill deserves some comment. The Knights Templars anciently held
an estate here of which the origin is obscure. At the Dissolution King
Henry seized it, and handed it over to the Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem. But their turn was to come also. In 1540 the King despoiled
them, and gave Shoot-up-Hill to Sir Roger Cholmeley. At a later date we
find that this and the estate at Kilburn were vested in the same holder,
Sir Arthur Atye and Judith his wife.

There is very little to remark on in this hill. A few of the houses on
the west are not aggressively modern, but those on the east are all
start[Pg 41]lingly new. St. Cuthbert's Church, built in 1887, stands at the
end of St. Cuthbert's Road.

Howitt derives the name of Kilburn from Kule-bourne or Coal-brook. The
earliest mention of this locality is when one Godwyn, a hermit, retired
here in the reign of Henry I., and "built a cell near a little rivulet,
called in different records Cuneburne, Keelebourne, Coldbourne, and
Kilbourne, on a site surrounded with wood." This stream is the same
which passed southward to the Serpentine, and empties itself into the
Thames at Chelsea, called in its lower course the Westbourne.

Between 1128 and 1134 Godwyn granted his hermitage to the conventual
church of St. Peter, Westminster. The Abbot, with the consent of the
convent, gave it to three pious maidens, Emma, Gunhilda, and Cristina,
who are said to have been maids of honour to Queen Matilda. They were to
live here, and Godwyn was to be master warden, and on his death they
were to choose some staid and senior person to fill his place. It is to
be gathered that the maidens were bound to celibacy, though no
particular monastic rule seems to have been enjoined. In the ensuing
years there were jealousies between the Bishop of London and the Abbot
of Westminster, who both claimed jurisdiction over the Priory. The Pope,
in 1224, who arbitrated, gave the award in the Abbot's favour, but the
Bishop[Pg 42] appealed to the Bishops of Rochester and Prior of Dunstable,
and, as they were on his side, he calmly assumed authority. The Priory
was enriched by various grants and privileges, and its devotees
increased in number. At the dissolution of the monasteries the King gave
it to the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem in exchange for some lands he
wanted. But in 1540 he wrested it from him, and regranted it to Robert,
Earl of Sussex. As has been mentioned above, Kilburn eventually came
into the same holding as Shoot-up-Hill.

A sketch of the Priory as it remained in 1772 is still extant, and shows
a little barn-like building with exterior buttresses and gable-ends.
Needless to say that no trace of it now remains, though its memory is
perpetuated in the names of Priory, Abbots, and Abbey Roads.

When the foundations for the London and North-Western Railway were dug
in 1850 various relics were found—tessellated tiles, human bones, and a
bunch of old-fashioned keys, etc.—which pointed to the fact that the
Priory had stood on that site. This spot is still pointed out not far
from Kilburn Station, close by the place where Priory Road goes over the
railway. It is a most uninteresting spot at present, with dull
respectable middle-class shops leading up to it.

A legend of Kilburn given in Timbs' "Romance of London" may be alluded
to here. It states[Pg 43] that at "a place called St. John's Wood, near
Kilburn," there was a stone stained dark-red with the blood of Sir
Gervase de Mertoun, who was slain by his brother, who had become
enamoured of his wife. Gervase, with his dying breath, exclaimed: "This
stone shall be my deathbed!" The brother Stephen suffered remorse for
his crime, and ordered a handsome mausoleum to be erected to his
victim's memory, which was to be built of stone taken from the quarry
where the murder was committed. As the eye of the murderer rested on a
certain stone, blood was seen to issue from it. This completed the
murderer's horror and remorse; he confessed his fault and died shortly
after, leaving his property to Kilburn Priory.

Kilburn Wells became famous about the middle of the eighteenth century,
and soon rivalled those of Hampstead as a place of entertainment. Even
so late as 1818 they were a favourite resort for Londoners.

The High Road at Kilburn, continuing in a straight line into Maida Vale
and the Edgware Road, is the old Watling Street of the Romans.

As a street it possesses little interest. Lines of modern red-brick
buildings with shops on the ground-floor form the main part of it, and
further south the shops are smaller, the buildings more irregular.[Pg 44]

In the remainder of the ward pleasant rows of moderate-sized houses with
small trees growing before them form the majority of the streets.

In Priory Road is St. Mary's Church, a fine stone edifice in the Gothic
style, dating from 1857. Behind this are open fields, rapidly being
encroached upon by the builder.

In Quex Road there is a large Wesleyan chapel with a big portico, close
by a Roman Catholic church with high-pitched roof, which instantly
recalls the Carmelite Church at Kensington; the architect was the same,
Pugin. It was built in 1878, and inside is lofty and light, with
polished gray granite pillars supporting the roof.

A slight account of the Manor of Belsize has been given above (see p.
2). The manor-house stood about the site of the present church, St.
Peter's, and Rocque's map of 1745 shows it in the middle of very
extensive grounds surrounded by fields. In the beginning of the
eighteenth century the house was a place of public entertainment. In
some newspaper cuttings from the Daily Post, date 1720, we read that
the "ancient and noble house" had been fitted up for the entertainment
of ladies and gentlemen during the whole summer season, and was to be
opened with "uncommon Solemnity of Dancing and Music." Among the
entertainments mentioned are the[Pg 45] Park, Bowling Green, and Fish Ponds.
The latter were stored with the "best of Carp and other Fish," and the
company might amuse themselves by angling or catching them with nets,
when they should be "dressed to perfection." We hear also that the Park
was well stocked with deer, and in August, 1721, a notice was issued.
"Besides the usual Diversions, there is to be a wild Fox Hunted To
Morrow, the 1st inst., to begin at four a clock." One hundred coaches
could stand in the square of the house, if we may trust the advertiser,
and "Twelve men will continue to guard the Road every night till the
last of the Company are gone." There was a satirical poem called
"Belsize House," published in 1722, showing that the house had earned a
bad reputation. Belsize Avenue, Park Gardens, and Buckland Crescent are
all built over the property. There is a tradition that the house was the
private residence of the Right Hon. Sir Spencer Perceval, when it ceased
to be a place of amusement in 1745. In 1841 the place was demolished,
and the site transformed as we now see it.

Belsize Lane is very old, being marked between hedges in Rocque's 1745
map, and shown as leading to the grounds of the manor-house. Baines says
that about 1839 "Belsize Lane was long, narrow, and lonesome; midway in
it was a very small farm, and near thereto the owner of Belsize[Pg 46] House
erected a turnpike gate to demonstrate his rights of possession."

The lane at present boasts a few shops and modern red-brick houses, but
it is greatly bounded by high garden walls, and the gardens reaching
from the backs of the houses in Belsize Avenue.

Belsize Avenue is a park-like road, from which on the south side stretch
the meadows of Belsize Park. Large elm-trees of great age throw shade
across the road, and seats afford rest to those climbing the ascent to
Haverstock Hill. Up to 1835 a five-barred gate closed the east-end and
made the road private.

In Belsize Square stands the Church of St. Peter, with a square
pinnacled tower. This was consecrated in 1859, and the chancel added
some seventeen years later. It is in the decorated style of Gothic, and
has a row of picturesque gable-ends lining the north-east side.

Belsize and Buckland Crescents and Belsize Park Gardens are all in the
same pleasant villa-like style, with trees and bushes growing beside the
roadway, but their chief claim to interest lies in their association
with the old manor-house.

The southern part of this ward is still more modern than the above, the
greater part having been built over since 1851. Eton Avenue is lined by
prettily-built, moderate-sized houses of bright[Pg 47] red brick alternating
with open spaces yet unbuilt on.

The north-eastern corner of the ward, including Eton Road, Provost Road,
Oppidans Road, College Road, and Fellows Road, is made up of medium
houses, many covered with rough stucco, and with a profusion of
flowering trees and bushes in the small gardens. This section of the
parish might well be part of some fashionable and fresh watering-place.
At No. 6, Eton Road lived Robertson, author of "Caste" and other plays.
St. Saviour's Church, built of ragstone, is at the corner of Eton and
Provost Roads; it is in Early English style, consecrated 1856.

Fellows Road runs into Steele Road, near the end of which, on Haverstock
Hill, is the Sir Richard Steele public-house. These names commemorate a
real fact. Sir Richard Steele had a cottage on Haverstock Hill, of which
prints are still extant. They show a funny little square, barn-like
building with pent house-roof, set in the middle of fields and
surrounded by trees. With a vividness of detail that does more credit to
his imagination than his eye the artist has depicted St. Paul's
Cathedral in the not very far distance!

England's Lane in 1839 was bounded on the south side by palings and a
wall, and on the north side by low palings and a ditch full of water.

Three houses there were in it, Chalcots, North[Pg 48] Hall, and Wychcomb. In a
view of the lane in 1864 we see a leafy country road with fine timber
growing over it. The lane at present is chiefly lined by shops, though
there are a few private houses.

In the Upper Avenue Road stands a large brick building with stuccoed
facings; it is the institution of the Society for Teaching the Blind,
founded in 1838. In 1840 certain industrial occupations were added to
the tuition in reading, which had been the primary object of the
foundation. After moving to several localities in succession, in 1847
the present site was obtained. In 1864 the building was enlarged, and
external workshops have since been added. The institution is entirely
supported by voluntary contributions, though a few paying pupils are
admitted. The pupils are taught any industrial trade which may support
them in after-life, such as piano-tuning, knitting, chair-caning,
basket-making, as well as the usual branches of a useful education. They
are admitted at any age under eight, and leave at twenty-one if men, and
twenty-four if women. There are day-scholars in attendance as well as
those resident in the house.

In Winchester Road are a few shops and St. Paul's parochial schools.
Where Eton Avenue and Adamson Road join there is the Hampstead
conservatoire of music, a large brick building.[Pg 49]

Professor Hales suggests that the word Haverstock in Haverstock Hill may
come from "aver," the Low Latin averia meaning cattle. He says that,
as in Rocque's map Pond is Pound Street, perhaps a cattle pound stood
here. The hill is at present a toilsome ascent, but most picturesque;
masses of shady trees in the grounds of Woodlands and Hillfield hang
over the seats placed for wayfarers, and on the east side, in spring,
bushes of flowering lilac or laburnum soften the picturesque red tiles
and bricks of the well-built modern houses. Here and there a small row
of shops forms a straight line, but between them the villa houses are
dotted about at any angle.

Of public buildings or institutions on the hill there are not many. The
Borough Hall, a red-brick building in the Italian style, stands at the
corner of Belsize Avenue. It was built in 1876, and first used for the
Cambridge Local Examination for Women.

Further up on the other side is St. Stephen's Church, which differs very
much from the ordinary church of the last half-century. It stands well,
surrounded by an enclosure of green grass, on a spot formerly called
Hampstead Green. The best view is obtained from Lyndhurst Road. Just
below it is the entrance to the immense buildings of the North-Western
Hospital. The brick wall encloses a house and front-garden at one time[Pg 50]
belonging to Sir Rowland Hill. This site was acquired by the
Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1868, and was destined to be used for
cases of infectious disease, a plan which provoked the greatest
agitation in the parish. In 1870 a severe epidemic of small-pox broke
out, and some wards were hastily built in addition to those which had
already been used for fever patients. As this was followed by an
outbreak of small-pox in the parish, the parishioners very naturally
wished the hospital to be removed, but without result. In 1876 another
outbreak and a further congregation of patients had the same result, and
after a long and protracted fight the inhabitants of Hampstead obtained
a verdict preventing the Asylums Board from using the hospital for
small-pox, though fever cases were not prohibited. In 1882 a Royal
Commission inquired into the facts regarding the spread of disease from
hospitals, and gave as their decision that thirty or forty patients
might safely be treated when a larger number would be injurious to the
neighbourhood. The Asylums Board eventually came to terms, agreeing to
restrict the hospital cases of small-pox to the number mentioned, to pay
the plaintiffs' costs, and an additional £1,000 by way of damages; but
they demanded that Sir Rowland's property should be sold to them.

The terms were accepted, and the hospital[Pg 51] henceforth was known as the
North-Western Hospital. In 1884 another epidemic of small-pox caused
them to fill the limited number of beds agreed upon, but as this also
was followed by an outbreak of the disease in Hampstead, a fresh appeal
was made by the local authorities, and ended in victory, no more
small-pox patients being received. The hospital was in full use during
the scarlet fever epidemic of 1888.

Close by the entrance to the hospital is an ancient inn, The George. It
has been repaired and renovated, but still shows its picturesquely
ancient lines. In front of the inn there used to be tea-gardens. A
convent of the Sisters of Providence is not far south. Looking up
Haverstock Hill from Chalk Farm there is an almost unbroken line of
greenery. Moderate-sized houses stand back on either side in their
gardens.

The Load of Hay was originally a very old inn, but has been rebuilt
recently, and is now a hideous yellow-brick public-house, with date
1863. Just opposite the Load of Hay lived Sir Richard Steele, in a
picturesque two-storied cottage, already mentioned. The cottage was
later divided into two, and in 1867 was pulled down.

Park Road is a long thoroughfare of no particular interest. At the north
end a range of red-brick, wide-windowed buildings attract atten[Pg 52]tion.
These are studios, occupied by some of the artists for which Hampstead
is famous; among the names perhaps that of W. Q. Orchardson, R.A., is
the best known. Beyond are the London Street Tramway Companies stables,
and to the north and east we get into a district very poor and slummy
for such a fresh, pleasant suburb as Hampstead.

The Fleet Road recalls the Fleet River, which had origin among the hills
of Hampstead and flowed down over this course. The hospital wall lines
one side of this dreary street. At the upper end, where two or three
roads meet, there is a fountain and pump, and this open space is known
as the Green and Pond Street. Pond Street seems to have alternately
encroached upon and receded from the Green, houses being named in one or
the other according to fancy. The street is steep and irregularly built.
It was about this site that some of the first houses in Hampstead were
built.

On the south-east side of the lane which leads to the hospital Sir
Sydney Godolphin Osborne resided. Sir Rowland Hill has been already
mentioned. Prince Talleyrand stayed in a house afterwards occupied by
Sir Francis Palgrave, and later by Teulon the architect. In the
adjoining house was Edward Irving, founder of the sect of that name, and
next to him the sculptor Bacon.[Pg 53] Collins the artist also lived in Pond
Street. In No. 21 there is at present an Industrial Home for Girls.

Adelaide Ward contains very little that is of interest. The streets are
all of one pattern, formed of detached or semi-detached villas standing
a little back from the road, with small trees growing before them.

The three churches in this part—namely, St. Paul's, Avenue Road; All
Souls, Loudoun Road; and St. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill Road—all
date from the last thirty or forty years, and are in the same style,
built of brick, and requiring no special notice.

Primrose Hill rises to the height of 216 feet in a conical shape, and
commands a magnificent view. The earliest name was Barrow Hill, and the
name Primrose Hill was first used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it
originated, it is said, from the quantity of primroses which grew here.
Professor Hales, in an address to the Hampstead Antiquarian and
Historical Society, quoted from the "Roxburgh Ballads," printed about
1620:

"When Philomel begins to sing,The grass grows green and flowers spring,Methinks it is a pleasant thingTo walk on Primrose Hill."

It was in a ditch on Primrose Hill that the[Pg 54] body of Sir Edmondbury
Godfrey, who was mysteriously murdered, was found in 1678. Soon after
Queen Victoria's accession the hill was obtained by the Crown as a
public space for the people for ever, the provost and fellows of Eton
surrendering their rights in consideration of an exchange of land.

The derivation of the odd name of Chalk Farm was not from any chalk
found in the vicinity, but is a corruption of Chalcots, a country house
or farm which stood on the south side of England's Lane. Contemporary
prints show us a large white house with balconies and pleasure-grounds,
for the house was at one time one of the minor tea-gardens in which the
North of London seemed particularly rich.

Chalk Farm was a favourite spot for duels in the earlier half of the
nineteenth century. The Adelaide Tavern dates from 1839, and facing the
spot there was previously a toll-house with turnpike gate.

We have now traversed the length and breadth of Hampstead, finding there
much that is picturesque, some few things ancient and many modern; and
above all we have experienced some of the charm and freshness of this
favoured spot. It is not difficult to see why Hampstead has been so
frequently selected as a home by artists—and not by artists alone, but
by literary[Pg 55] men of all classes. Its natural advantages and its many
associations have exercised, and continue to exercise, a fascination
which draws men potently, in spite of some drawbacks, not the least of
which is its inaccessibility.[Pg 56]

MARYLEBONE

The derivation of this name is simple. Lysons says: "The name of this
place was anciently called Tiburn, from its situation near a small bourn
or rivulet formerly called Aye-brook or Eye-brook, and now Tybourn
Brook. When the site of the church was altered to another spot, near the
same brook, it became St. Mary at the Bourne, now corrupted to St. Mary
le bone or Marybone." There is a possibility that the "bourne" did not
indicate the brook, but the boundary of the parish, in which case
Marybone would still be a corruption of St. Mary at the Bourne.

The borough of Marylebone is unique in many respects. It contains many
well-known and magnificent houses, such as Montagu House, Portman
Square; Hertford House, Manchester Square, where is Sir Richard
Wallace's collection of pictures and curiosities; Portland House,
Cavendish Square; and others. More than two-thirds of Regent's Park are
within its boundaries, including[Pg 57] nearly all the Zoological Gardens. In
some parts of the borough the street lists furnish many titled and
famous names; in others are the poorest and most squalid districts,
rivalling in misery those of the East End.

Many foreign embassies are located within the parish boundaries. But the
most striking characteristic is the great number of hospitals. There are
hospitals for special diseases everywhere, besides large institutions
which have acquired more than Metropolitan fame.

The ancient Tyburn stream ran right through this district. It rose not
far from Swiss Cottage, and ran for a few hundred yards through Regent's
Park, across the road at Sussex Place, between Gloucester Place and
Baker Street, across the Marylebone Road, then, turning westward under
Madame Tussaud's, by South Street to the foot of High Street, passing
along close to Mandeville Place, it crossed Wigmore Street and so
reached Oxford Street.

The manor of Tyburn is mentioned in Domesday Book among the possessions
of the Abbess and Convent of Barking. Early in the thirteenth century it
was held by Robert de Vere, whose daughter married William de Insula,
Earl of Warren and Surrey, from whom the manor passed to their heirs,
the Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel. The Berkeleys, Nevilles and Howards
divided[Pg 58] three-quarters of it later, and one quarter went to Henry V. as
heir of the Earls of Derby.

About the end of the fifteenth century Thomas Hobson bought up the
greater part of the manor, and in 1544 his son Thomas exchanged it with
Henry VIII. in consideration of lands elsewhere.

The manor remained with the Crown until James I. sold it to one Edward
Forset, who had previously held it at a fixed rental under Elizabeth.
James reserved to the Crown the tract of land then known as Marylebone,
now Regent's, Park. Sir John Austen, Forset's grandson, sold the estate
to John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, for £17,500. The Duke of Newcastle's
only child, Henrietta, married Edward Harley, who succeeded his father
as Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. He carried on his father's collection of
books and MSS., and formed what was afterwards known as the Harleian
Collection, which was bought by the trustees of the British Museum for
£10,000. Henrietta's only daughter, Margaret, married William Bentinck,
second Earl of Portland, and thus the estates passed to the Portland
family.

In the west was another manor, that of Lyllestone, a name still
preserved in the corruption, "Lisson" Grove. This manor is mentioned in
Domesday Book among the lands in the hundred of Ossulston. In 1338 it
was in the hands of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Sir William
de[Pg 59] Clyf held it from the knights. In 1512 the then Lord Prior granted a
parcel of land out of the manor to John and Johan Blennerhasset on a
fifty years' lease. On their decease Chief Justice Portman acquired
their interest, afterwards obtaining the land in fee simple, and thus
creating the Portman estate. This estate comprised 270 acres. The
remainder of Lyllestone Manor included several estates of importance.
The St. John's Wood estate was granted by Charles II. to Lord Wotton in
discharge of a debt. In 1732 it was bought by Samuel Eyre, after whom it
was known as the Eyre Estate.

Another estate lying along the Edgware Road was bequeathed to Harrow
School by John Lyon. A third was known as City Conduit Estate. The
borough at present embraces the Eyre estate at St. John's Wood, the
Baker estate, comprising the poor district to the west of Lisson Grove,
the Portman estate, the Portland estate, and other land, including the
park held by the Crown.

Beginning our ramble at St. John's Wood Station in the heart of the
borough, we find ourselves near the well-known Lord's Cricket Ground.
Thomas Lord first made a cricket-ground in what is now Dorset Square,
and in 1814 it was succeeded by the present one, which is the
headquarters of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the club that gives laws to
the cricketing world. Among[Pg 60] the most popular matches which take place
here are the annual contests between Oxford and Cambridge, Eton and
Harrow, when the resources of space are taxed to the utmost. Besides
these, during the season, the M.C.C. matches, the Middlesex Club
matches, and Gentlemen v. Players are played here. Lord's has been
increased many times since its inauguration; most recently by a piece of
ground, about two acres, which was formerly part of the site of the
Clergy Orphanage. This was presented by the Great Central Railway
Company in return for the privilege of being permitted to tunnel a
corner of the cricket ground.

The extension of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway,
now known as the Great Central Railway, has completely altered the face
of Marylebone. The demolition caused by it extends up the west side of
the Wellington and Finchley Roads; but it is further south that the
greatest changes have taken place. St. John's Wood Road is itself
untouched, the line passing under it.

The part of the parish lying to the west and north contains nothing of
any exceptional interest. There are wide roads and well-built terraces,
and an air of prosperity that speaks well for the neighbourhood. A Home
for Incurable Children, founded in 1873, is near the Maida Vale end of[Pg 61]
St. John's Wood Road, and in Hamilton Terrace is St. Mark's Church, in
modern Gothic style; a Presbyterian church and several chapels are also
to be found in this neighbourhood.

Returning to the point from whence we set out, we find St. John's Wood
Chapel, which is in the classical style, designed by Hardwicke in 1814.
The chapel stands well at the junction of four important roads; its
Ionic portico is dignified and suitable to the position. The body of the
chapel is covered with ivy, and the windows look down on a large
burial-ground, now open as a public garden, which is peculiarly bright
and well kept. In it are many fine trees, chiefly willows, which
overhang the seats placed for public comfort. The gravestones, which are
many, have not been removed, and with few exceptions are of the regular
round-topped pattern. In the vault beneath the chapel lies the wife of
Benjamin West, P.R.A. In 1833 there had been about 40,000 persons buried
in this ground, and it is probable this number was greatly exceeded
before the burials ceased. Joanna Southcott was buried here in 1814.

Further north in the Finchley Road All Saints' Church stands up
conspicuously. This is a fine church in the Perpendicular style, built
in 1846. The chancel was added in 1866, and the tower and spire in 1889.
It is really the church of the Eyre estate, and was largely built by the
Eyre[Pg 62] family. There is in it a beautiful marble font of uncommon
pattern, and a pulpit to match.

This part of Marylebone, to the north of Regent's Park, has a High
Street of its own—a wide street with comparatively low buildings. The
vista, on looking back from the top to the trees of the burial-ground
and Regent's Park, is not unattractive. The shops which line either side
of the road, though small, are clean and bright. St. John's Wood Terrace
is a very wide thoroughfare. In it stands St. John's Wood Church,
chiefly distinguished by a very heavy portico. The church is at present
used by the Congregationalists, and was formerly known as Connaught
Chapel. Just beyond the chapel we come to the St. Marylebone Almshouses.
They are built round three sides of a square, and enclose a quadrangle
of green grass. The blue slate roofs and drab stuccoed walls form a
gentle contrast. The central house, occupied by the superintendent, is
fronted by a clock over the Royal Arms.

By the will of Simon, Count Woronzow, dated September 19, 1827, the sum
of £500 was left for the poor of the parish of Marylebone, and this sum
was given by the Vestry, under certain conditions, to the committee for
the proposed erection of almshouses in 1836, to be by them applied to
building purposes. Various charitable subscriptions and donations have
been added from time[Pg 63] to time, until at present the almshouses afford an
asylum to about fifty-two single women and eight married couples. The
recipients must be of good character, and must have paid rates in the
parish of Marylebone for at least ten years, and never received
parochial relief. They must be over the age of sixty years. They must
have a small weekly sum of their own or guaranteed by a friend. They
receive shelter and free firing; the single inmates receive in addition
7s. a week, and the married couples 10s. 6d. The corner houses, in which
the rooms are larger, are occupied by the married couples. The central
building contains the board-room, lined by the names of generous donors.
On the staircase is a bust of Count Woronzow, whose name is also
commemorated in the road which runs on the east side of the houses.

The parish extends to within about fifty yards of the summit of Primrose
Hill on the south side. At this spot three stones, erect, standing
together, mark the point where the three boroughs of Hampstead, St.
Pancras, and Marylebone meet. Not far below is a covered reservoir. This
spot was formerly known as Barrow Hill, a name supposed to be derived
from burials which anciently took place here. St. Stephen the Martyr's
Church stands just within the parish boundaries of Marylebone. It is a
pretty little Gothic church with a[Pg 64] square battlemented tower and
triple-gabled east end. It was built in 1849, and restored thirty years
ago. The interior of the church is not equal to the exterior. All the
roads lying to the north-west are in uniform style, with comfortable
modern villa houses.

When the Manor of Tyburn was let to Edward Forset, King James reserved
Marylebone Park for the Crown, and it remained in the same keeping until
1646. In that year King Charles I. granted it to two faithful adherents,
Sir G. Strode and J. Wandesford, in payment for arms and ammunition
which they had supplied to him. In the time of the Commonwealth the park
was seized and was sold on behalf of the opposite cause, the proceeds
being devoted to the payment of one of Cromwell's regiments of dragoons.
At the Restoration it was restored to its former holders, who retained
it until the debt due to them was discharged. The park was then let to
various leaseholders, the last of whom was the Duke of Portland, whose
lease ended in 1811, when the land reverted to the Crown.

The ground was laid out by Nash in 1812, and was named Regent's Park in
honour of the then Regent (George IV.), for whom it was proposed to
build a palace in the centre of the park, in the spot now occupied by
the Botanical Gardens.

Regent Street was designed to form a con[Pg 65]tinuous line between the Palace
and Carlton House, near St. James's Park. Nash built all the terraces in
the park except Cornwall Terrace, which was the work of Decimus Burton.
By a clause in the lease the lessees of the houses in these terraces
have to repaint the exteriors in August every fourth year. The broad
walk and adjacent flower-beds were laid out and opened to the public in
1838.

The park is about 400 acres in extent. The ornamental water is in shape
something like the three legs on a Manx halfpenny. A terrible accident
happened here in 1867, when the ice gave way and forty skaters lost
their lives; since then the pond has been reduced to a uniform depth of
4 feet. The water for this is supplied by the ancient Tyburn Brook.

South Villa was built about 1836, and an observatory was erected here by
Mr. Bishop; this was frequently used by Dawes and Hinde, who here
discovered many asteroids and variable stars.

St. Dunstan's Villa was formerly occupied by the Marquis of Hertford,
and is of considerable size. It is in the Italian style, and was
designed by Decimus Burton, whose name is almost as closely associated
with the park as Nash's own. The name of St. Dunstan's arose from the
two gigantic wooden figures of Gog and Magog, which[Pg 66] the Marquis brought
from St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, where they had been since 1671.

A panorama was formerly exhibited in Regent's Park, in a great building
called the Colosseum. This was opened in 1829, and attracted crowds of
people. It stood on the east side of Regent's Park near Park Square.

Regent's Park Baptist College is established in an old house known as
Holford House, from its first owner Mr. Holford.

The building is of great size and stuccoed; within, the central hall,
used for prayers, has an ornamental gallery. The domed skylight is of
coloured glass, and a huge bronze statue of Bunyan, by Sir E. Boehm,
stands on the south side.

The former ballroom, now used for lectures, debates, etc., is a
magnificent room, with richly mounted ceiling and walls decorated with
plaster work painted to resemble wood. The dining-room is also of great
size. The students' studies are at the east and west ends of the
building, and the common rooms in the centre. The extreme west wing is
let privately, as the whole house is too large for the college
requirements.

Regent's Canal was begun in 1812, and was opened August 1, 1820, with a
procession of boats, barges, etc. It is in total length 8 miles 6
furlongs, and descends about 84 feet from the beginning to the end.[Pg 67]

In Regent's Park there are various enclosed gardens and grounds—namely,
the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, and the grounds of the
Toxophilite Society. The first of these is too well known to need much
description. The Zoological Society originated in 1826, and was
incorporated three years later. Sir Humphrey Davy and Sir Stamford
Raffles are the two names most closely connected with its foundation.
The Gardens were opened in 1828, and contain the finest collection of
animals in the world. They are open to the public on payment of 1s.
daily and 6d. on Mondays. On Sundays admittance is obtained only by an
order from a Fellow.

The Botanical Gardens belong to the Botanical Society, incorporated in
1839 by a Royal Charter. The Gardens fill nearly the whole of what is
known as the inner circle in Regent's Park, a space of ground comprising
nearly 20 acres in extent, held on a lease from the Crown. These gardens
are tastefully laid out, and include a hot-house (covering about 20,000
feet of ground), winter garden, conservatory, special tropical houses,
museum and lecture-room, tennis court, and an ornamental piece of water.
Entrance is obtained by an order from a Fellow. Exhibitions of plants,
flowers, and fruit take place during the spring and summer. The Duke of
Teck is the President.[Pg 68]

The Toxophilite Society was founded by Sir Assheton Lever in 1781. He
had previously formed a museum of curiosities in Leicester Square on the
site of the present Empire Music Hall. It was in the grounds of this
house that targets were first shot by the Society. When the museum was
sold in 1784 the ground was no longer available. It was in this year
that an Archers division of the Honourable Artillery Company was formed.
In 1791 an archery ground was rented on the east side of Gower Street,
on part of which site Torrington Square now stands. In 1805 this ground
was required for building purposes. From this date to 1810 there are no
authentic records of the Society, and from then until 1821 the records
are intermittent. It is probable the Society shot at Highbury. In 1821
Mr. Lord allowed the members to shoot on his cricket ground on payment
of three guineas a day. Mr. Waring, who had been Sir Assheton's
coadjutor in founding the Society, owned ground in Bayswater to the east
of Westbourne Street. He had previously offered this site to the
Society, and his offer was eventually accepted. In 1833 the present
ground in Regent's Park was obtained. This is about 6 acres in extent
and well laid out. It includes a hall with accommodation for members.

The shooting season is divided into two parts:[Pg 69] one from the first
Thursday in April to the last Thursday in July, and the other from the
last Thursday in September to the first Thursday in November. Ladies'
days are a feature of the club, and every Thursday between the
above-mentioned dates has some fixture or competition. The only rival to
the Royal Toxophilite Society is the Grand National Archery Society.

The part of the borough lying to the west of the park has been immensely
altered by the new railway. In fact, the greater part of the buildings
have been demolished, and the amount of compensation paid to
dispossessed owners and leaseholders is said to be unprecedented.

In Blandford Square there is a convent which has survived the general
wreck. It was first established near Queen's Square, Bloomsbury, in
1844, and was opened on its present site in 1851.

The House of Mercy is for servants out of work, who do laundry and other
work, and so contribute to their own support. There are thirty Sisters,
who, besides attending to the home, do much charitable work in teaching
and the visitation of the sick.

Dorset Square was built on the site of the original Lord's Cricket
Ground. It was made by one Thomas Lord at the end of the eighteenth
century, and, as stated above, in 1814 the present ground was
substituted, so Dorset Square can claim only[Pg 70] a small connection with
the famous game. The streets leading northward from Dorset Square are of
little interest. In Hill Street is a small Baptist place of worship. In
Park Street is St. Cyprian's little church, opened in 1866.

The last house on the east side of Upper Baker Street bears one of the
Society of Arts memorial tablets to the memory of Mrs. Siddons, who
lived here intermittently for many years. She used to give readings from
Shakespeare to her friends in this house, and here in 1831 she died. The
house is now called "Siddons House Private Hotel."

In the Marylebone Road, close to the underground station, stands Madame
Tussaud's famous waxwork exhibition, the delight of children and
visitors from the country. The waxworks were begun in Paris in 1780, and
brought to London in 1802 to the place where the Lyceum Theatre now
stands, and afterwards were removed to Hanover Square rooms.

On the west side of Park Road are the terraces abutting on Regent's
Park. Some of these terraces show fine design, though in the solid,
cumbrous style of the Georgian period. Hanover Terrace was designed by
Nash, and also Sussex Place, which was named after the Duke of Sussex.
The latter is laid out in a semicircle, and is crowned by cupolas and
minarets. The houses are very[Pg 71] large, and, in spite of fashion having
deserted the district, can still show a goodly list of inhabitants.

The district lying to the west of Sussex Grove and Grove Road is the
poorest and most miserable in the borough. In Grove Road is a Home for
Female Orphans, a large gabled building. The girls are received here at
six years of age, and pass on to service when about sixteen. The little
village of Lisson Green stood out in the country not far from the great
Roman Road, the present Edgware Road (see p. 58), and it formed the
nucleus round which houses and streets sprang up. From the Marylebone
Road to St. John's Wood Road the streets are poor and squalid, abounding
in low courts and alleys. Several great Board Schools in the
neighbourhood of Great James Street rise up prominently, and round about
them neat lines of workmen's houses are gradually replacing the wretched
tenements. The district is still miserable, but it has bettered its
notoriously bad reputation of ten or twenty years ago.

St. Barnabas Church, near Bell Street, was built by Blomfield, and is in
a kind of French Gothic. Christ Church, in Stafford Street, not far off,
is surmounted by a cupola, and built in the classical style. It was the
work of P. Hardwick in 1825.

Earl Street is a long, dreary, but fairly respectable thoroughfare. The
Marylebone Theatre or Music Hall is in Church Street. This was opened[Pg 72]
in 1842 as a penny theatre, and enlarged in 1854. In Church Street there
is also a Baptist chapel.

Salisbury and Carlisle Streets are indescribably dingy. In the latter is
St. Matthew's Church, which has the (perhaps) unique distinction of
having been built for a theatre. It was consecrated in 1853, and
restored forty years later. Close by the church, between the two streets
mentioned above, is the Portman Market. This was opened as a hay-market
in 1830, and the year following was dedicated to general uses. The
market is still held on Friday every week. Smith speaks of it as bidding
"fair to become a formidable rival to Covent Garden," a prophecy which
has not been fulfilled. There is another Board School of great size
between two miserable little streets on the east, and another a little
further north between Grove Road and Capland Street.

Infant, National, and Catholic Schools lie near North and Richmond
Streets. One or two of the houses to the north of the latter have still
retained a certain cottage-like appearance, a memory of the bygone
village. Lyon's Place, a straggling mews, preserves the name of the
benefactor who left the estate he had bought here to found Harrow
School; and the names Aberdeen, Cunningham, Northwick, etc., are
associated with the school.

The Regent's Canal runs under Aberdeen Place. Emanuel Church, a curious
little square building[Pg 73] with an Ionic portico, was formerly known as
Christ's Chapel. It was largely remodelled in 1891, and seats over 1,000
persons. On the interior walls are several memorial tablets.

Edgware Road forms the western boundary of the parish. It is a very
ancient road. In the 1722 edition of Camden's "Britannia" we read:
"Towards the Northern boundary of Middlesex a military way of the Romans
commonly called Watling Street enters this country, coming straight
along from the older Verulam to London over Hampstead Heath; not the
road which now lies through Highgate, for that, as is before observed,
was opened only about 400 [marginal note, 300] years ago by permission
of the Bishop of London, but that more ancient way (as appears by the
old charters of Edward the Confessor) which ran along near Edgeworth, a
place of no great antiquity."

The difficulty of accounting for the entrance of the road at this
particular point has been solved in various ways. It has been suggested
that a circuit had been made to avoid the great Middlesex forests, but a
more likely theory is that it followed this route to avoid the Hampstead
and Highgate hills. Edgware was the name of the first town it passed
through after the forests of Middlesex.

We have only to deal with the east side of the road at present. This is
lined with shops, vary[Pg 74]ing in quality and increasing in size towards the
Marble Arch. There are no buildings of importance. The road ends in
Oxford Street, the ancient Tyburn Road, a name associated with the
direful history of the gallows.

The Tyburn gallows were originally a huge tripod, subsequently two
uprights and a cross beam. The site was frequently changed, so that both
Marylebone and Paddington can claim the dreadful association. Timbs says
that the gallows were erected on the morning of execution right across
the Edgware Road, opposite the house at the corner of Upper Bryanston
Street. This house has iron galleries from which the Sheriffs watched
the execution, and in it after the ceremony the gallows were deposited.
Galleries were erected for spectators as at a gladiatorial show, and
special prices were charged for special exhibitions. Among the people
who suffered at Tyburn, the best known are: Roger de Mortimer, for
treason, 1330; Perkin Warbeck, 1449; the Holy Maid of Kent and her
confederates, 1534; Robert Southwell, the Elizabethan poet, 1595; Mrs.
Turner, murderess of Sir T. Overbury, 1615.

In 1660-61, on the anniversary of Charles I.'s execution, Cromwell,
Ireton, and Bradshaw were dragged from their graves and hanged at
Tyburn, after which their heads were cut off and exposed[Pg 75] on Westminster
Hall, and their bodies buried beneath the gallows.

Jack Sheppard was hanged here in 1724, and the last person to suffer at
Tyburn was John Austin, in 1783. The turnpike gate across the road near
the gallows remained until 1825. It was a double turnpike, with gates on
both the Edgware and Uxbridge Roads.

The Marylebone Road was at first called the New Road, when it was cut in
1757. The Bill for its making had met with strong opposition in
Parliament from the Duke of Bedford. In consequence of his opposition a
clause was introduced prohibiting the erection of any building within 50
feet of the road, and the effect of this prohibition is to be seen in
the gardens which front the houses.

The new road was later subdivided into the Marylebone and Euston Roads.
Beginning at the Edgware Road, the first building on the south side to
attract attention is St. Mark's Church, designed by Blomfield. This
church is of red brick, and is prettily built and surmounted by a high
steeple. The schools form a part of the same building. The consecration
ceremony took place on June 29, 1872. A few doors further on are the
Christian Union Almshouses, founded in John Street, 1832, and extended
to Marylebone Road in 1868. These are supported by voluntary
con[Pg 76]tributions, and are for the benefit of old women or married couples
of the parishes of Marylebone, Paddington, or part of St. Pancras. The
inmates receive sundry gratuities, coal and lodging, but the eligible
must possess not less than 4s. 6d. per week.

A neatly built Roman Catholic church with high-pitched roof stands at
the corner of Homer Row. This was built about 1860, and is called the
Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. The northern side of the Marylebone
Road, for the distance traversed, consists of huge red brick flats in
the most modern style.

Standing back a little from the road, again on the south side, near
Harcourt Street, is Paddington Chapel, for Congregationalists.

Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital and Midwifery Training School comes
soon after. This was founded in 1752, and was the third of its kind to
be established in London. It was at first situated in Bayswater, and
moved to the present site in 1813. In 1809 the Duke of Sussex was
elected president for life, and it was he who induced Queen Charlotte to
give the hospital her patronage, and to allow it to be called by her
name. The Duke was the guiding spirit of the institution until his death
in 1843. In 1857 the present building was erected on the site of the
older one.[Pg 77]

No. 183 is the Yorkshire Stingo public-house, which preserves the name
of a celebrated tavern and place of entertainment. From here the first
pair of omnibuses in the Metropolis were started on July 4, 1829. They
ran to the Bank and back, and were drawn by three horses abreast. The
return fare was a shilling, which included the use of a newspaper. A
fair was held at the Yorkshire Stingo on May 1 for many years. Close by
are the St. Marylebone Public Baths and Wash-houses, which claim the
honour of having been the first of the kind in the Metropolis.

The St. Marylebone County Court adjoins. This was erected in 1874-75,
when the need for further accommodation than that afforded by the old
Court House was felt.

Seymour Street was cut through a nest of slums about 1872-73; it partly
replaced the old Stingo Lane, which extended from Marylebone Road to
Crawford Street, and was a most disreputable thoroughfare. The Samaritan
Free Hospital, for diseases peculiar to women, occupies the place of ten
numbers, 161 to 171. This is a fine modern building with fluted
pilasters running up the frontage to an ornamental pediment. The
memorial stone was laid on July 24, 1889, by the King, then Prince of
Wales. The hospital was first established by Dr. Savage in Orchard
Street in 1847. The celebrated engineer James Nasmyth,[Pg 78] after whom a
ward is named, left a bequest of £18,000. There is a well staircase in
the building which separates the hospital into two parts, one devoted to
medical, the other to surgical cases. The benefits of the hospital are
extended free to patients from all parts of the world, not even a
subscriber's letter being required. The only requisites are that the
applicant must be poor and respectable and a suitable case, then she is
taken in directly a vacancy occurs.

Almost opposite the hospital is the Great Central Hotel, and behind it
the railway-station, in an elaborate style that forms a contrast to some
of the dismal termini in London. The Western Ophthalmic Hospital, a
gloomy-looking stuccoed building, is near at hand. This was founded in
1856.

The small streets leading from the Marylebone Road into York and
Crawford Streets are poor in character. In the north of Seymour Place is
a small Primitive Methodist chapel, erected in 1875. York Street, in
spite of being a little wider, is not much better than its neighbours.
In Wyndham Place is the Church of St. Mary's, Bryanston Square, in the
style of Grecian architecture so much affected in this parish. The
architect was R. Smirke. Dibdin, the bibliographer, was the first
incumbent of this church, and the poetess L. E. Landon was married here
June 7, 1838.[Pg 79]

Bryanston and Montagu Squares are almost duplicates. They are built on
ground known as Ward's Field, where there was formerly a large pond,
which was the cause of many fatal accidents. Near this spot was a little
cluster of cottages called Apple Village. The squares were built about
the beginning of the present century. They are lined by large houses in
a uniform style, and are as fashionable now as in 1833. The Turkish
Embassy is at No. 1, Bryanston Square, at the south-east corner.

Horace Street was once known as Cato Street, and was the scene of the
infamous conspiracy which originated with Thistlewood in 1820. The
conspiracy was to murder the Cabinet Ministers, burst open the prisons,
set fire to the Metropolis, and organize a revolution. Thistlewood and
his fellow-conspirators were caught in a hay-loft in this street, where
they used to hold their meetings, and the five of them, including the
ringleader, suffered the extreme penalty of the law, while the rest were
transported. It is now a poor and squalid thoroughfare, occupied by
general shops, and reached only by a covered entry at each end.

In Nutford Place is St. Luke's Church, built in the Early English style
in 1854. It stands on the site of a cholera hospital, which was not used
during the great epidemic of 1849, as there was[Pg 80] not a single case in
the parish. The church was built in memory of this great deliverance.

The Marylebone Presbyterian church stands between Upper George Street
and Little Queen Street.

Upper Berkeley Street contains a Jewish Synagogue, built in 1870 for
Jewish dissenters. Brunswick Chapel was built in 1684 by Evelyn Cosway
for Lady Berkeley.

In Bryanston Street there is a synagogue which was built for the Spanish
and Portuguese Jews resident at the West End. This has been recently
superseded by a much larger building in Lauderdale Road, Sutherland
Avenue. Quebec Chapel was built in 1788, and is now called the Church of
the Annunciation. It has numbered among its incumbents Dr. Alford and
Dr. Goulburn, later Deans of Canterbury and Norwich respectively, and
Dr. Magee. The number of chapels of every denomination thus shown to
cluster in this district is curious.

Great Cumberland Place is fashionable still. This was formerly Great
Cumberland Street, and was called after the Duke whose name is
associated with Culloden. It leads us out nearly opposite to the Marble
Arch.

Oxford Street.—Lysons says the north side of the street was completed
in 1729, and then called Oxford Street. But against this statement
there[Pg 81] is the fact that a stone built into a house at the corner of
Rathbone Place was dated "Rathbone Place in Oxford Street, 1718."
Pennant remembers Oxford Street "a deep hollow road and full of sloughs,
with here and there a ragged house, the lurking place of cut-throats."

Its chief association will always be that of the many dismal processions
going to Tyburn, when some poor wretch, tied upright in a jolting cart
with his coffin in front of him, was taken in face of all the world from
Newgate to the gallows to "make a public holiday." The slow grinding of
the wheels, the jeers and shouts, the scuffling of those who would be
foremost not to miss one tremor of agony, must have combined to form a
torture felt even by the most hardened criminal. The scene must have
been more degrading still when the punishment was that the victim should
be flogged at the cart-tail.

The terrible procession is familiar to all from Hogarth's illustration
"On the way to Tyburn," one of the series of Idle and Industrious
Apprentices. Here he shows people among the crowd sinking up to their
knees in mire, thus proclaiming the state of the principal highways in
the eighteenth century.

The present Oxford Street is a wide and handsome thoroughfare, with many
splendid shops lining either side. There are no buildings of[Pg 82] any public
importance. The Princess's Theatre occupies the site of a large bazaar
known as Queen's Bazaar. It has been many times remodelled and rebuilt.
The latest rebuilding was in 1879. Its chief claim to notice is that
here took place Kean's famous Shakespearian revivals.

The part of the borough lying to the north of Oxford Street includes
both the oldest and the most aristocratic quarters. Bryanston and
Montagu Squares have been already noticed.

Portman Square was begun about 1764, but not completed for nearly twenty
years. The centre was at first a shrubbery or wilderness, and here the
Turkish Ambassador placed a summer-house or kiosk, where he used to sit
when the Turkish Embassy was in this Square. Thornbury says he was then
occupying Montagu House, but Smith says the Embassy was in No. 78, and
Montagu House is now numbered 22. However, it is possible that the
numbers have been altered. The list of the names of the present
inhabitants reads like a page from the Court Guide. Among the most
important are those of the Duke and Duchess of Fife at No. 15, and
Viscount Portman at Montagu House.

This house was built for Mrs. Montagu, a celebrated blue-stocking of the
eighteenth century. She was born at York in 1720, and came to Montagu[Pg 83]
House in 1781. Here she founded the "Blue-Stocking" Club, and gathered
round her many famous men and women. On May 1 every year she gave a
feast to all the chimney-sweeps of London, "so that they might enjoy one
happy day in the year," an expression hardly appreciated now when the
lot of chimney-sweeps is so very different from what it was then. Timbs
remarks of the house: "Here Miss Burney was welcomed and Dr. Johnson
grew tame." The lease reverted to the Portman family in 1874.

York Place, Baker Street, and Orchard Street form a long line cutting
straight through from Marylebone Road to Oxford Street. Baker Street was
named after a friend of W. H. Portman's. The combined thoroughfare is
uniformly ugly, with stiff, flat houses and some shops. Nos. 8 and 9,
York Place were once occupied by Cardinal Wiseman, and later by Cardinal
Manning. They are now Bedford College for Ladies. The Baker Street
Bazaar was originally designed for the sale of horses, and behind it,
until 1861, was held the Smithfield Cattle Club Show. Later, the bazaar
was the scene of Madame Tussaud's well-known waxworks.

Portman Chapel, near Adam Street, was built in 1779. Between King and
George Streets is Little George Street, in which is a French chapel,
built in the reign of George III. by emigrés from the[Pg 84] French
Revolution. It is a Catholic chapel, and is called "Chapelle de St.
Louis de France."

Orchard Street was named after W. H. Portman, of Orchard Portman in
Somerset, who bought the estate of the manor. St. Thomas's Church is the
only object of note in the street; it was built by Hardwick, and
consecrated July 1, 1858.

In Lower Seymour Street is the Steinway Hall, used for concerts and
various entertainments. In Nos. 9, 11, 13 is the home of the Sisters of
St. Vincent de Paul. Two of these houses were formerly occupied by the
Samaritan Eye Hospital. A statue of our Lord stands over the central
doorway, and at His feet an inscription on stone announces that a
night-home for girls of good character was originally started here, and
was founded by public subscription in honour of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, and in memory of the pilgrimage made to Paray-le-Monial on
September 4, 1873, by the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland. The
Home is now for destitute children, and is on the same lines as the
sister institution at Westminster. The noticeable feature of the Home is
that girls who have been placed out as dressmakers, teachers, etc., and
are earning their own living, may still return every evening. The
Sisters are also engaged in many other charitable works.

Manchester Square was begun in 1776 by the[Pg 85] building of Manchester House
on the north side, but the house was not finished until 1788. It was
built for the Duke of Manchester, but was afterwards the residence of
the Spanish Ambassador. The Roman Catholic chapel in Spanish Place was
built during the Embassy from designs by Bonomi. It was restored in
1832, but has been replaced by a large church in the next street, and
its site is now covered by high red-brick flats. The French Embassy
succeeded the Spanish, but was withdrawn at the time of the last
Revolution. The Marquis of Hertford afterwards occupied the house, and
called it after himself. He was succeeded by Sir Richard Wallace, who
built immense picture galleries round the garden at the back, enclosing
it in a quadrangle. He almost rebuilt the house, and at his death left
his famous collection of pictures and curios, which were brought here
from the Bethnal Green Museum, to be eventually bequeathed to the
nation, which was done on the death of Lady Wallace.

North Street leads us into a network of small slums, and Paradise Street
opens into a public recreation ground, laid out with trees and shrubs,
where the children play among sombre altar-tombs of a past generation.
This was formerly a cemetery, consecrated in 1733, and the Marylebone
historian, Smith, says that more than 80,000 persons have been interred
in it. Of the names he gives[Pg 86]—country gentlemen, baronets, captains,
etc.—none are now remembered. George III.'s master-cook and Princess
Amelia's bedchamber woman are of little interest to us of the twentieth
century. The only men here buried who can claim a faint degree of
posthumous fame are Canning, father of the great statesman, and Bonomi
the architect.

The cemetery on the north side of Paddington Street was consecrated much
later, in 1772. In this also there is little of present interest.
Stephen Riou, one of Nelson's captains, killed in action at Copenhagen,
deserves mention, but the others have no public memory. The Mortuary and
Coroner's Court stand near the ground, of which the greater part is
attached to the workhouse for the benefit of the inmates.

Paddington Street was built about the time of the consecration of the
northern graveyard. It is in the centre of a poor district, and has
nothing to commend it. There is a mission-house and an Industrial Home
for Destitute Boys.

In Northumberland Street stands the workhouse, built about 1775, and
adjoining is a solid, well-built stone edifice containing the offices of
the Guardians of the Poor. At the north-east corner of the street is the
Cripples' Home and Industrial School for Girls. The inmates are taught
sewing, basket-making, and are educated, clothed, and boarded.[Pg 87]

Marylebone Church.—William de Sancta Maria, who was Bishop of London in
the reign of King John, appropriated the church at Tybourn to the Priory
of St. Lawrence de Blakemore in Essex, but with the reservation of a
maintenance for a vicar. In 1525 the Priory suffered the fate of its
fellows, and the King seized the control of Tybourn Church. He passed it
on to Wolsey, with license to appropriate it to the Dean and Canons of
Christ Church. At Wolsey's request they granted it to the master and
scholars of his old college at Ipswich. When the Cardinal was disgraced
the King resumed the Rectory, and in 1552 granted it to Thomas Reve and
George Cotton. Before 1650 it came into the possession of the Forset
family, from which time its history has been identified with that of the
manor.

The ancient church stood at what is now the Oxford Street end of
Marylebone Lane, and on account of "its lonely situation" was repeatedly
robbed and despoiled. In 1400 the inhabitants made a petition to the
then Bishop of London, Robert Braybrooke, to remove it to a more
advantageous situation. This was granted, and license given them to
erect a new church of "stones or flints" at the place where they had
recently built a chapel. The former church had been dedicated to St.
John the Evangelist; the new one was dedicated to St. Mary. The spot on
which it was[Pg 88] built is the same on which the old parish church now
stands, near the top of High Street.

This church is described as having been a "mean edifice." It was the
original of the church delineated by Hogarth in the marriage of the
rake, in his famous "Rake's Progress." This series was published in
1735, and the church was then in a ruinous condition. It was
subsequently pulled down and rebuilt (1741) in the form in which it now
stands, with the exception of some slight alterations. In a curious
diary in the Harleian MSS. collection it is stated that the Rev.
Randolph Ford, curate of Marylebone between 1711 and 1724, on one Sunday
"married six couples, then read the whole of the prayers and preached;
after that churched six women; in the afternoon read prayers and
preached; christened thirty-two children, six at home, the rest at the
font; buried thirteen corpses, read the distinct service over each of
them separately—and all this done by nine o'clock at night."

The only ancient charity connected with the church is a bread bequest
left by Thomas Verley in 1692. He left £50, the interest to be spent in
bread, twelve penny loaves to be given to the poor every Sunday. This
ceremony is still observed, but the value of the money has increased, so
that 5s. worth of bread is distributed every Sunday after service. The
mural tablets[Pg 89] and monuments on the walls of the church are of some
interest and of great variety. The earliest dates back to 1644. The
Viscountess Ossington about ten or twelve years ago had them all
restored at her own expense.

About 1770 the necessity for providing increased church accommodation
became apparent, and it was first proposed to erect the new building on
the north side of Paddington Street, where Mr. Portman offered a site.
This land was afterwards used for a burial-ground. The next suggestion
was for a site to the north of Portland Place, but this was also
abandoned. Finally, the present site to the north of the old church was
secured after many delays. Mr. Thomas Hardwicke (a pupil of Sir W.
Chambers) was the architect of the new church, which was designed at
first to be merely a chapel of ease. The first stone was laid July 5,
1813; when the building was finished it was resolved to make it the
parish church, and the old church the chapel of ease. Accordingly, this
was done by Act of Parliament, and the new church consecrated on
February 4, 1817. In[Pg 90] this church Robert Browning was married in 1846.

The building is of great size, seating over 1,400 people. The front is
ornamented by an immense portico with six Corinthian columns, and the
building is surmounted by a high belfry tower. In 1883-84 a thorough
investigation of the church took place. The interior was restored in the
Italian Renaissance style, the architect employed being T. Harris. An
apse was added and other alterations made. The necessary funds were
raised by a bazaar held in the Portman Rooms, Baker Street, in which all
the features of the old Marylebone Gardens were reproduced. Close beside
the church are the Central National Schools of St. Marylebone, with a
higher grade Technical School for boys and girls opening on to the High
Street. The latter building overlooks the graveyard filled with hoary
tombstones.

At the top of High Street, in the Marylebone Road, formerly stood a
turnpike, otherwise there is little to remark on in High Street. It has
fallen from its former importance, and is a dingy, uninteresting
thoroughfare with poor shops. This, being one of the older streets,
follows a tortuous course, in contrast with more modern streets
westward. We are now at the nucleus of the old village of Marylebone.

Nearly opposite to the old church was the[Pg 91] manor-house, and its site can
be fixed accurately; it was at the end of the present Devonshire Place
mews, and is incorrectly described in one or two books as having been on
the site of Devonshire mews, which would take it out of the High Street
altogether.

This manor-house was originally a royal palace, built by Henry VIII.,
doubtless as a kind of hunting-lodge for the adjacent Marylebone Park,
as Regent's Park was then called.

It is said to have been visited by Mary and Elizabeth, and as there are
authentic records of the latter Queen's entertainment of the Russian
Ambassador here, the statement is probably true. The house was rebuilt
and considerably altered when it became the manor-house at a later date,
but after having borne this title for many years it was let as a school
in 1703, and was pulled down in 1791.

Another house about 100 yards south of this in the High Street has often
been confounded with it (the manor-house), but this was built by Edward
Harley, second Earl of Oxford, for the reception of the famous Harleian
collection of MSS., begun by his father and continued by himself. When
this collection was purchased by the British Museum the house, known as
Oxford House, became a boarding-school for girls. The grounds stretched
out at the back, covering the space now[Pg 92] occupied by Beaumont Street,
Devonshire Place, and part of Devonshire Street. Some time before the
house became a school these grounds were detached, and a noted
bowling-green was established here. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's sharp
remark in reference to this, "Some Dukes at Marylebone bowl time away,"
has often been quoted. There was close to the green a noted tavern
called the Rose of Normandy. This is supposed to have been built in the
early half of the seventeenth century, and was a well-known resort of
gamesters and idlers. Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, against whom Lady
Mary's sally was principally directed, is said to have spent much of his
time there. He used to give a dinner to his associates at the end of the
season, and his parting toast was, "May as many of us as remain unhanged
meet here again next spring." In a plan of the Duke of Portland's estate
in 1708 two bowling-greens are shown, one in the gardens at the back of
the manor-house, and one behind the tavern. Both of these bowling-greens
were afterwards incorporated into the famous Marylebone Gardens.

These Gardens were entered through the tavern above mentioned, and were
opened before 1737; up to that date the public had free access, but
afterwards were admitted only on payment of one shilling, for which,
however, they received an[Pg 93] equivalent of "tea before eight o'clock," or
"half a pint of wine during the concert." There was a theatre in the
Gardens, in which balls, concerts, and scenic displays took place. The
musical department was for some time under the direction of Dr. Arne,
and the fireworks under Signor Torre. An allegorical play was performed
on June 4, 1772, in honour of the King's birthday.

In 1778 the Gardens were closed, complaints having been made by the
inhabitants as to the danger of fire from the fireworks. Pepys mentions
the Gardens as "a pretty place," and John Locke records "bowling at
Marebone and Putney by persons of quality." These Gardens formed the
scene of McHeath's debauchery in the "Beggars' Opera." Devonshire Place,
built on the site, is a fine wide street.

Almost opposite to the church, on the north side of the Marylebone Road,
is the Charity School for Girls, a large, well-built edifice, which
stands back behind a high brick wall. An inscription on this wall
proclaims "St. Marylebone Charity School for the maintenance and
education of the daughters of poor inhabitants. Supported solely by
voluntary contributions. Founded 1750. Moved to this date 1838."

In 1750 a few benevolent gentlemen inaugurated the scheme, and at first
its benefits were open to boys and girls alike. In 1754 the[Pg 94] Dowager
Countess of Oxford, having granted a piece of land in High Street for
the term of 999 years at peppercorn rent, the school house was erected.
The numbers of the children varied according to the income. In 1829 it
was considered advisable to devote the charity exclusively to girls, and
the boys were dispersed. In 1838 the present schoolhouse was built on
ground leased from the Duke of Portland. P. Hardwicke was the architect,
and the result is entirely satisfactory.

The girls enter at ten, or two years earlier if they are paying pupils,
and remain till sixteen. They make everything for themselves at the
school excepting hats and boots, and do all their own domestic work, the
kitchen and laundry being under the superintendence of a cook and
laundress. Large orders of needlework are executed, but the mornings are
devoted to bookwork.

They still wear the picturesque dress of the time of the establishment
of the foundation. On Sundays they are dressed in brown frocks with
elbow sleeves and mittens, and wear white fichus and aprons and snowy
Dutch caps, like the children of the Foundling Hospital. The building is
on the site of Marylebone Park House, an old house, parts of which the
architect has incorporated into its successor; a handsome oak floor and
marble mantelpiece of the Queen Anne period are to be[Pg 95] seen in the
board-room. At its southern end High Street bifurcates, becoming Thayer
Street and Marylebone Lane.

In 1839 Charles Dickens came to a large house in Devonshire Terrace,
facing York Gate. This was his home for eleven years, during which
appeared "Martin Chuzzlewit," "Dombey and Son," "David Copperfield," and
many minor works.

Marylebone Lane is a narrow, crooked street on the site of a real lane,
which followed the windings of the Tyburn and overhung its left bank. At
the south end stood the ancient parish church already referred to. The
fact of the churchyard having surrounded the church was proved by the
number of bones and human remains dug up at the foundation of the Court
House. This Court House stands in a wedge-shaped block. It is now
superseded by the larger Court House in Marylebone Road. The Vestry
offices were in this block which was originally built in 1729, and
rebuilt in 1804. It is a plain brick building, with a clock dial set in
a triangular pediment. It adjoins the site of the old Watch House on
ground where the parish pound stood formerly. A stone let into the
adjacent building records "A.D. MDCCXXIX St. Marylebone Watch House,"
and is surmounted by a coat of arms. It is curious to reflect that not
so very long ago, as men count time in history, the little lonely church
stood here on the brink of a stream[Pg 96] and surrounded by fields.
Marylebone Lane is now a very poor and squalid district.

In 1237 one, Gilbert Sandeford, obtained leave to convey water to the
City from the Tyburn, and laid down leaden pipes, the first recorded
instance of their use for this purpose in England. Once a year the Mayor
and Corporation visited the head of their conduits, and afterwards held
a banquet in the Banqueting House in Stratford Place. "The Lord Mayor
and Aldermen and many worshipful persons rode to the conduit heads to
see them, according to the old custom; and then they went and hunted a
hare before dinner and killed her, and thence went to dinner at the
Banqueting House at the head of the conduit, where a great number were
handsomely entertained by their Chamberlain. After dinner they went to
hunt the fox. There was a great cry for a mile, and at length the hounds
killed him at the end of St. Giles with a great holloaing and blowing of
horns at his death, and thence the Lord Mayor with all his company rode
through London to his place in Lombard Street" (Strype). The Banqueting
House was demolished in 1737, long after Sir Hugh Myddelton's scheme
(1618) for supplying London with water from the New River had rendered
the Marylebone conduits unnecessary.

Stratford Place is a cul-de-sac opening out of[Pg 97] Oxford Street. It was
built about 1774 by Lord Stratford, the Earl of Aldborough, and others.
It was Lord Stratford who built Aldborough House in this place, before
which General Strode erected a column to commemorate the naval victories
of England. The column, which was a Corinthian one surmounted by a
statue of George III., fell in 1805, eight years after its erection. The
house in Stratford Place was subsequently occupied by the Duke of St.
Alban's, Prince Esterhazy, and others.

Vere Street was called after the Veres, Earls of Oxford. The western
district post-office is situated here, and at the north end is the
little Church of St. Peter's, formerly called Oxford Chapel. T. Smith
says this was considered one of the most beautiful structures in the
Metropolis; taste has altered considerably since those days. It is a
small squat building erected in 1724 by Gibbs. In 1832 it was altered,
redecorated internally, and named St. Peter's.

The marriage of the Duke of Portland with the heiress of the Newcastle
and Oxford families took place here in 1734. The Rev. F. D. Maurice was
a former incumbent.

Henrietta Street was named after Henrietta, heiress of the Duke of
Newcastle; and Welbeck Street, after Welbeck, the Duke of Portland's
seat in Nottinghamshire. It was one of the earliest built after
Cavendish Square, and shares[Pg 98] in the prevailing medical element of the
district. The West End Hospital is on the west side, next door to
Welbeck Hall, used by the Plymouth Brethren. At the upper end of the
street is the Russian Embassy and chapel.

Wigmore Street is wide and lined by good shops. It was called after
Wigmore Castle, the ancient seat of the Harleys, Earls of Oxford. This
was one of the first streets to be built after Cavendish Square; it was
burned in 1729, but rebuilt.

Wimpole and Harley Streets are long, dreary arteries which give the
impression of having been cut out of cardboard. At Nos. 43 to 45 is now
Queen's College, and next door is the Governesses' Home and Registration
Office. The College was first established in 1848. It owed its origin
partly to the Governesses' Benevolent Institution, and partly to the
exertions of the Rev. F. D. Maurice and the Rev. C. G. Nicolay. The
first object was to assist governesses to obtain certificates of
efficiency, but this is no longer the primary object. The College
occupies two fine old houses thrown into one; but though the picturesque
ceilings and staircases add to its interest, the narrow passages and
turnings are inconvenient. The names of Kingsley, Maurice, Trench, of
Sterndale Bennett and of Hullah, associated with its early development,
are sufficient to give the foundation exceptional interest.[Pg 99]

South of Weymouth Street is a poor, squalid district. In this is
Westmorland Street, where stands St. James's Chapel. This was built in
1774, and was first called Titchfield Chapel, and subsequently Welbeck
Chapel, before it gained its present name. It was thoroughly restored in
1869-77. Externally, the chapel has no architectural beauty, but inside
a richly-coloured Burne-Jones window, placed so low as to give the
impression of an altar-piece, lights up the building.

Cavendish Square is the nucleus from which all the surrounding streets
have radiated. The ground was laid out in 1717, when the circular garden
in the centre was designed. For a time the name of the Square wavered
between Oxford and Cavendish, and it was referred to indiscriminately as
one or the other; but at length the present name gained favour. An
equestrian statue of the Duke of Cumberland, presented by General
Strode, formerly stood in the garden. At the southern end there is a
bronze statue of Lord George Bentinck by Campbell. James Brydges, Duke
of Chandos, formed a design for building in the Square a princely
residence, and he took the whole of the north side for a site. He had
amassed a large fortune as Paymaster in Queen Anne's reign, and he
intended to purchase all the property between this spot and Edgware, so
that he might ride from town to country over his own[Pg 100] domain. But only a
part of his palace was ever completed. The two similar buildings still
standing on each side of Dean's Mews were designed for lodges. One of
the wings was occupied for a time by Princess Amelia, aunt to George
III., and subsequently by the Earl of Hopetown. This has since been
demolished. One of these is now a convent of the nuns of the Holy Child
Jesus.

On the west side of the Square is Portland House, a heavy stone edifice
of great size standing back behind a high brick wall. The stables and
grounds connected with it stretch through to Wimpole Street. The house
was first called Bingley, and later Harcourt House. It was designed by
Inigo Jones for Lord Bingley in 1722-23, and purchased after his death
by the Earl of Harcourt, and when it was bought by the Duke of Portland,
it was for a second time renamed. This was the only house standing when
the Duke of Chandos designed his palace. The ground was then worth 2s.
6d. a square foot. In 1833 a man then living remembered a fox being
killed in the Square.

The streets leading from the Square are all of about the same date, and
were built or laid out in the eighteenth century. At No. 24, Holles
Street Lord Byron was born.

Chandos House in Chandos Street was a part of the original house
designed by the Duke of[Pg 101] Chandos. A long, low, rough, stuccoed building,
containing the Medical Society of London, is here also, besides numerous
offices of other societies, mostly medical.

In Queen Anne Street, No. 23 contains the offices of the Portland
estate. It is a quaintly-built house, quite modern, with a commemorative
tablet to Turner, R.A., who lived here. At No. 72 Fuseli formerly lived.
Portland Place was built about 1772, and measures 126 feet in width. It
is one-third of a mile long, and was designed by the brothers Adam. It
was Nash's fancy to make Regent Street run straight on into Portland
Place to lead up to a palace to be built for the King in Regent's Park,
but this design was subsequently abandoned. The Chinese Embassy is in
No. 49.

On the site of the Langham Hotel originally stood Foley House, built by
the Duke of Foley. In his lease with the Duke of Portland it was
expressly stipulated that no other house should be built to block the
view northward. Thus, when Portland Place was built, it was made of the
present enormous width in consequence of this stipulation. Foley House
was demolished in 1820, and part of the site was bought by Sir James
Langham, whose name is preserved in the adjacent street. The well-known
architect, Nash, was employed by him to build a house, but Sir[Pg 102] James
was dissatisfied with the construction. It is said that Nash, then
employed in carrying out Langham Place, made it curve, to spite his
employer, instead of carrying it on in a continuous line to Portland
Place, as was at first designed.

All Souls' Church is also Nash's work. This church was built 1822-24,
and is of a curious design with a circular portico surrounding a
circular tower surmounted by a spire. The altar-piece is by Westall,
R.A. The church was restored in 1876. Dr. Thomson, late Archbishop of
York, and Bishop Baring of Durham, were among the former incumbents.

Queen's Hall, close by, is used for concerts and entertainments.

The London Crystal Palace, erected in 1858, stood formerly on the site
of a great drapery establishment at the north-east corner of Regent
Circus.

Halfway down the part of Regent Street above the Circus is the
Polytechnic Young Men's Christian Institute and Day Schools, also the
Polytechnic School of Art, founded in 1838, and enlarged ten years
later. It was originally intended for the exhibition of novelties in the
Arts and practical Sciences, especially agriculture and other branches
of industry. Exhibitions were held here and lectures and classes
established, but in 1881 the building was sold, and is now used as above
indicated.[Pg 103]

Margaret Street was named after Margaret, heiress of the Newcastle and
Oxford families. In it is All Saints' Church, a decorative building
which has been described as the most beautiful church in the Metropolis.
It was built by W. Butterfield, and the first stone was laid by Dr.
Pusey on All Saints' Day, November 1, 1850. The whole of the interior is
covered by mural decorations. The frescoes in the chancel were executed
by W. Dyce, R.A. The style is Early English, and the spire reaches a
height of 227 feet.

The church stands on the site of a chapel which is said to have been the
cradle of the High Church Movement in the Metropolis. It is curious to
read that in the eighteenth century this chapel was an isolated
building, and that a shady lovers' walk led from it to Manchester
Square, and another walk through the fields to Paddington!

In No. 204, Great Portland Street is the London Throat Hospital. The
Jews' Central Synagogue, a large and imposing building in the Byzantine
style, is just to the north of New Cavendish Street. In Portland Place
there was formerly a well-known tavern, the Jew's Harp, where Onslow,
Speaker to the House in George II.'s reign, used to resort incognito.
St. Paul's (episcopal) Chapel stands to the north of Langham Street.
This was formerly Portland Chapel, and was erected 1766 on the[Pg 104] site of
Marylebone Basin, which had for some time formed the reservoir of a
water-supply. The chapel was not consecrated until 1831, when it
received its present name. This name recalls a market begun here in 1721
by Edward, Earl of Oxford, but not opened till 1731, owing to the
opposition of Lord Craven. The market had a central vane, with date of
foundation and the initials of Lord Harley, Earl of Oxford, and his
wife. He obtained a grant "authorizing himself, his lady, and their
heirs to hold a market on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays for the
sale of flesh, fish, fowl, herbs, and all other provisions." It does not
seem, however, to have answered his expectations, for the central room
was afterwards used as a pay-office for Chelsea out-pensioners. On the
site of this Oxford Mansions now stands.

Titchfield Street was built about the end of the eighteenth century.
Loutherbourg, R.A., lived here, and W. Collins, R.A., was born in this
street in 1787.

All the rest of this district is very dreary. There are various chapels
and charitable institutions scattered about in the streets; but it seems
likely before long that land in such an advantageous position will be
required for buildings of a better class, which will bring in more rent
than the present ones.

MARYLEBONE DISTRICT.
Published by A. & C. Black, London.

Wells Street chiefly consists of large manufac[Pg 105]turing premises. St.
Andrew's Church has been opened out by the demolition of adjoining
houses. It is celebrated for its choir.

Nollekens the sculptor's studio was at No. 9 in Mortimer Street. The
Middlesex Hospital stands back from the street, with two wings enclosing
a cement courtyard. This hospital was instituted in 1745 for sick and
lame patients. It was first situated in Windmill Street, Tottenham Court
Road, but was removed to Marylebone Fields, as the present site was then
called in 1755. The site was obtained from Charles Berners on lease for
the term of 999 years, and the first stone of the building was laid by
the Duke of Northumberland. The building of the wings was completed in
1775, and they were extended in 1834. Various additions were made to the
hospital, and improvements carried out in the interior arrangements, but
it was not until 1836 that a charter of incorporation was obtained.

At the end of the eighteenth century several of the wards not then
required were opened for the reception of the French refugees as a
temporary shelter.

And with this we bring our "Circuit Walk" to an end, having found
therein many things interesting, and not a few curious, even in a
district usually accounted by no means exceptional in these respects.[Pg 106]

"To praise this book were superfluous. Sir Walter was ideally suited for
the task which he set himself. He was an antiquarian, but not a
Dryasdust; he had the topographical sense, but he spares us
measurements; he was pleasantly discursive; if he moralized, he was
never tedious; he had the novelist's eye for the romantic. Above all, he
loved and reverenced London. Though only a Londoner by adoption, he
bestowed upon the capital a more than filial regard. Besant is the
nineteenth century Stow, and something more."—Daily Telegraph.

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON

SCOTTISH
MEN OF
LETTERS
IN THE
EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY

By
HENRY
GREY
GRAHAM

Author of "Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century"

IN ONE VOLUME DEMY 8vo., CLOTH WITH 32 FULL-PAGE PORTRAITS

18s.

Some Press Opinions.

"An eminently readable book ... full of charm and interest.... There is
not a page of the book which does not sustain its interest, and nowhere
does Mr. Graham fail to give us a lively picture of the life and
character of those of whom he writes.... Mr. Graham has shown how
literary biography may be made more attractive than many a creation of
fiction."—Times.

"Very good reading indeed."—Candid Friend.

"The book is readable on every page, and throws much light on the
history of the Modern Athens. Mr. Graham has indeed used his wide
acquaintance with the diaries and memoirs of the eighteenth century to
good advantage, and gives us a book more readable than most novels, as
well as full of instruction."—World.

"Eminently readable, full of anecdote and brilliantly described
incident, and illustrated by many admirable portraits."—Pall Mall
Gazette.

"Not a page of what he writes but is suggestive, inspiring above all
things in his readers a desire for more."—Daily Mail.

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON

SOCIAL
LIFE OF
SCOTLAND
IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

By
HENRY
GREY
GRAHAM

Author of "Scottish Men of Letters in the Eighteenth Century"

FOURTH EDITION IN ONE VOLUME DEMY 8vo., CLOTH

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community—recalling to us, as from the time of oblivion, the homes and
habits and labours of the Scottish peasantry; the modes and manners and
thoughts of society; showing us what the people believed and what they
practised, how they farmed and how they traded, how their children were
taught, how their bodies were nourished, and how their souls were
tended."—Daily Chronicle.

"There is not a page in the two volumes which does not contribute some
details to make up a singularly vivid and interesting picture of our
country's past."—Glasgow Herald.

"His picture of the domestic life and industry, the rural economy, the
religious customs and theological opinions, the superstitions, the laws,
and the educational institutions of the age of our great-grandfathers,
is as vivid in colouring and effective in grouping and composition as it
is authentic and trustworthy as a piece of history."—Scotsman.

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON

SIX BEAUTIFUL BOOKS

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